The Beginning Again
by Insane Romantic
Summary: Revenge escalates into something infinitely more dangerous—and Sakura is given the chance to travel back in time and somehow set everything right once again. BEING REWRITTEN--CHECK PROFILE.
1. The End

Okay, before I start, a lot of you might notice that Sakura in this chapter is really cold. I'm not trying to make her all angsty or anything, but trying to show that she's matured as a woman and a ninja. She's faced death before and also has been forced to cause it, and while she's still kind and open-hearted and still Sakura on the inside, she's no longer idealistic and unrealistic about the world and how it works—i.e., when she comes across the nearly dead medic-nin, Sakura doesn't try to heal her because she knows it's impossible, and she also has no mercy on the rogue-nin that was attacking a child. So, to reiterate, Sakura's much more mature now and more realistic, though she's still kind at heart, of course.

Oh, and I suppose their ages are somewhere around twenty. I hope you enjoy this. And one more thing—when Sasuke defeats Itachi, he inherits all of his powers, right? So Sasuke has Mangekyou Sharingan? Well, whatever, if he doesn't just pretend he does. This is a fanfic, after all.

_Sakura's thoughts_

**_Inner Sakura's thoughts_**

* * *

_Chapter One_

Konoha was falling.

Sakura quickly dodged the falling debris around her as she frantically made her way to the Hokage tower, channeling extra chakra to her legs to speed herself up and draining her already strained chakra supply. She ignored the suffering around her, the screaming of the civilians and bawling of the children, though it pained her to do so. Her first priority, she knew, was to protect the Elders, her Hokage, and Naruto.

The Akatsuki had planned their invasion well, thought Sakura bleakly. Slowly, strategically, the ruthless group had cut off all of Konoha's links to the outside world, so carefully that by the time the Hidden Leaf village had noticed the subversive attack it was far too late to do anything about it but pray. Then they had systematically reduced and taken out the number of chunnin and gennin, effectively rendering the bulk of Konoha's ninjas useless. Now all that remained were the village's elite nin, the few jounin that could do little against the inhumanly skilled Akatsuki despite their best efforts.

Sakura was momentarily chilled. That perfectly constructed, crippling plan had required an intimate knowledge of the interior workings of the village—the sort of knowledge that only a fellow ninja would have. But what sort of ninja would launch such a ruthlessly crushing invasion of Konoha? What sort of nin would hold so much hatred for a village that had nurtured them and protected them?

Sakura had heard the whisperings, of course. She knew that more often than not, the Council and Tsunade suspected Sasuke to be behind these attacks—but Sakura refused to believe that. Sasuke had turned his back on them, of course, broken his bonds or at least attempted to, but he had never hated Konoha itself. He had no reason to—or so she thought.

She deftly dodged a massive block of concrete as it dislodged itself from a building and began its inevitable journey downwards. Somehow, somewhere, the Akatsuki had managed an alliance with countless bloodthirsty rogue and missing-nin, and they delighted in the complete and utter destruction of Konoha and everything in it. It twisted her heart to see her home in such shambles, to see such coldblooded viciousness around her.

Hardly even slowing her stride, she brandished her katana and drove it through an oblivious rogue nin's eye. She had long become immune to the sickening sound of the cartilage and bone snapping and shattering, the sick mushiness once the katana reached and pierced through the brain, and the spattering of the vitreous humor of the eye. He slumped backwards, an expression of surprise forever etched onto his half-ruined face, and Sakura continued on, not bothering to clean her katana and hardly noticing the horrified look of the child that the rogue nin had been harassing.

She passed by one of her fellow ninja, a brown-haired, blue-eyed young chunnin she recognized as a medic in training from the hospital, already cataloguing her physical condition as good as dead. There would be no point in attempting to heal her; a horrid gash had wrecked her stomach and Sakura saw the girl's intestines were spilling out. Sakura knew the medic-in-training would not live for two minutes longer and quickly prayed for the girl as she continued to the center of Konoha.

She drew in a sharp breath as she neared her final destination. There—she recognized Ichiraku's, the place where she and Naruto and, once, Sasuke, had had so many good times. It was little more the a burning wreck now and, biting her lip, Sakura continued on. Her eyes were dry, and she felt an almost twisted sense of pleasure at that fact. She had sworn never to cry—never after that night by the bench when Sasuke had abandoned her.

But what she saw right after shocked her even more than anything else in her life.

"S-sasu… Sasuke-kun…?" she heard herself whisper dully.

The scene in front of her was supposed to be impossible—it _was_ impossible, and she had no idea how he had managed to accomplish it.

Naruto lay, unconscious, with cuts littering his body. With just a glance, Sakura could already tell by his labored breathing and slightly bent right arm that he had at least two broken or fractured ribs and that his arm was broken. She also noticed the fox-like markings on his face and the ugly red chakra still pulsating around him, and concluded that he had called upon the Kyuubi.

Not too far from him was a woman on her knees that looked vaguely familiar, an old, exhausted woman, with blond hair and brown eyes, and Sakura recognized her as Tsunade—though this woman was clearly older than fifty, and Sakura had never seen her shishou looking a day over thirty. And what was even more shocking—Sasuke was holding his katana, Kusanagi, to Tsunade's throat, surrounded by three unfamiliar people. He looked worse for the wear, of course, but still relatively unhurt.

Sakura took no notice of that. For a second, he stopped being Sasuke-kun, her crush and her love and one of her most precious people. Now, he was the man who was to blame for Naruto's pain, the man who dared put a blade to the throat of her teacher. Unthinkingly, uncharacteristically of her, she gathered chakra to her fist, preparing to fight him, and determined not to be robbed of her chance as she had been that one time long ago. She let Inner Sakura take over.

"_Sasuke!" _she cried out, full-throated, full of fury, and rushed as quickly as she could at him. She saw Naruto stir desperately, saw Tsunade's eyes widen as the Hokage tried desperately to warn Sakura to run, as far as she could, that this was not the same Sasuke she had fallen in love with. At that point, however, Sakura was beyond caring; she wanted revenge, and by Kami, she would get it.

He stared impassively at her, his Sharingan activated, but did not bother to remove his katana, and it infuriated her even more that he considered her so little a threat. She wanted to make him _hurt_, make him agonize and scream for all those eight years of pain and crushed hopes and abandonment. But even in her infuriated state, Sakura knew she was no match for the sole remaining Uchiha. At the last moment she directed her chakra to her feet, and stomping decisively on the ground, didn't wait for it to crack and crater as she knew it would. Instead, rushing as quickly as she could, she made a split second decision and slung Naruto over her shoulder. With Sasuke's inhuman she knew there was no way to get both Tsunade and Naruto out of Sasuke's reach in one go.

She was perversely satisfied and not at all disappointed when she saw Sasuke appear in front of her, seemingly out of thin air. Her sharp mind concluded he had seen fit to trust her weakened Hokage with his new teammates and now had decided to pursue her.

Quickly, she swerved to the right, and when he appeared in front of her once again, she aimed a chakra-enhanced kick at him. If he dodged, then she would follow up with a punching and kicking combo Lee had taught her; if he attempted to block her kick he would receive an unpleasant surprise: a shattered arm. His eyes narrowed suspiciously at her kick and he dodged, so she followed with a punch that would have broken his neck had it reached him. He disappeared again and Sakura took a precious moment to curse his superior speed before quickly releasing the transportation jutsu she had been planning while fighting him.

She came to somewhere on the border of Konoha; she was not sure where. Her first order of business was to hide Naruto's unconscious body somewhere safe until she could return to him and heal him, but her normally sharp mind blanked out. Sasuke was a genius, and she would need some sort of birlliant epiphany and for him to be unthinkably careless before she could even think about fooling him.

By then she was frantically running on chakra-propelled legs, attempting to put as much distance between herself and where she assumed Sasuke to be as possible. Naruto had taught her his _Kage Bunshin no Jutsu_, and though Sakura could produce a passable shadow clone, it drained near half her chakra and in any other circumstance would be an absolutely ridiculous idea.

But not in this circumstance. Bracing herself, Sakura put Naruto down and began the hand signs that would complete her jutsu, pouring her mind and chakra into it. Next to Naruto's unconscious body, another poofed into existence and Sakura nearly lost consciousness herself at the strain. Gritting her teeth, however, she ignored the faintly nauseous feeling and gray lightheadedness that were telltale signs of chakra exhaustion and slung the fake Naruto over her shoulder. Nearly crying with frustration and exhaustion, she forced herself through the hand signs of yet another genjutsu and disguised Naruto as a particularly unruly clump of bushes. She knew it wouldn't stand a chance against Sasuke's advanced Sharingan, but didn't plan to be around long enough to let Sasuke find out about it. Sakura just hoped that an overzealous rogue nin wouldn't try to set fire to the bushes or something equally boneheaded, but there wasn't enough time to think about that.

So. Now she had a decoy that was hopefully skilled enough to fool Sasuke, at least enough into chasing her. Allowing herself a moment, Sakura took a deep breath to calm her exhaustion, wiped her forehead of the sweat that had accumulated there, and thought back on the irony that for once, she was attempting to run away from him rather than follow him.

Bracing herself once again, Sakura forced herself through another transportation jutsu and found herself near the long abandoned Uchiha compound and, for a split second, once more considered the irony. Though it was derelict due to long years of desertion, it was the only part of Konoha that had been relatively untouched by the rogue nin currently invading Konoha.

_**What do you think you're doing here?**_

Sakura growled. Her alter ego, Inner Sakura, rarely showed up these days to the point where Sakura almost forgot she was even there.

_Simple. It isn't likely there'll be any nin here, so I won't be forced to fight any. You know I can't in this condition. And I'm familiar with the area anyways._

It was true. On days when she felt particularly nostalgic, she had taken to walking through the maze that was the Uchiha compound. Only the long dead and gone Uchihas were more familiar with the compound than she was these days.

She shifted so that the Naruto clone was straddling her back rather than slung over her shoulder and concentrated what little chakra she had remaining to her legs. She wasn't nearly stupid enough to think that she would be able to escape Sasuke, and quite frankly was surprised she had been able to evade him for so long.

He appeared in front of her and aimed a kick that was so inhumanly fast that she barely dodged. It glanced off the side of her stomach, near where Sasori had impaled her, and she went flying towards the wall. Jackknifing frantically, she used her momentum and sprang off the wall.

"Sasuke-kun! Why are you doing this?" she called out desperately, if even just to buy more time.

His flinty obsidian eyes stared unflinchingly and impassively at her, but he didn't answer.

"P-please… Sasuke-kun…! Stop it! I—I don't know what happened, but—!" She quickly dodged his series of blows, but they still grazed her and left several bruises.

"Sakura… don't be annoying."

For the first time Sakura felt tears prick her eyes. It was ridiculous how one word could undo all of her years of work, those years she sweated and hurt to improve and to do something other than watch the backs of her teammates.

"I—am—not—_annoying!"_she exploded suddenly. Using the last remnant of her chakra and a good deal of her monstrous strength, she punched the wall behind her and attempted to escape in the rubble.

Sasuke appeared directly in front of her. "Did you think I'd be fooled by the same trick twice, Sa-ku-ra?"

Sakura, staring innocently at him, asked guilelessly, "What trick?"

And then she disappeared.

It took Sasuke a moment to put together what had happened—yet another transportation jutsu. Honestly, it was ridiculous how often she was using that simple jutsu… and how often it was effective. He followed where he felt her chakra ruthlessly. Cornering her at a dead end, he noticed that Naruto was gone.

"Where did you put Naruto?" he demanded in a monotone voice.

"Like I'd tell you!" retorted Sakura defiantly.

He had to admit that he was impressed in an annoyed sort of way. He could feel no traces of Naruto nearby. "Tch. How annoying," he said instead—and activated his Mangekyou Sharingan.

Sakura, who had been staring insolently at him, gasped, and the next thing she knew she was trapped in a sea of red and surrounded by a black sky, tied to a cross, and in front of her Sasuke stared at her impassively holding Kusanagi.

There was a feeling in her gut that told her something very, _very_ bad was going to happen.

"Wh—what—?"

"This is Mangekyou Sharingan," he informed her tonelessly. "I will ask one last time—where did you put Naruto?"

"No—why do you want him so badly anyways?" retorted Sakura desperately. "I thought you'd severed your bonds with us eight years ago!"

Quicker than she could blink, he had Kusanagi pressed against her throat and drew a thin line of blood. "Don't test me, Sakura."

"Sasuke-kun—please—," she broke off as he stabbed his katana into her stomach and her world exploded into white hot shards of pain. When she came to, her throat was sore from her screaming and Sasuke stared impassively at her still.

_**Is it some sort of unwritten agreement in the Akatsuki to stab you in the exact same place in your stomach each time?**_Inner Sakura tried joking weakly.

_Sasuke-kun… You… no, you aren't Sasuke-kun any longer. Revenge changed you, made you into a monster._

_**Sakura. We won't be able to survive this much longer without going insane.**_

_But what will we do? It's impossible to escape Mangekyou Sharingan._

_**But we're crazy! And crazy people can do anything!**_

Sakura laughed weakly, coughing up blood, and decided that Sasuke probably thought she was a masochist by now.

_What? What changed Sasuke so much that he's willing to kill the people he considered his precious people so long ago?_

_**Orochimaru.**_

_No. Not just Orochimaru. Something else must have happened. Orochimaru could never have convinced him to actually invade Konoha and kill us._

_**Itachi.**_

_Yes—Itachi could have convinced him._

_**But how will we escape?**_

_I… I don't know._

"Where is Naruto?" repeated Sasuke, seemingly unaffected by the sight of his old teammate in front of him, bleeding and broken.

"He—no!" Horrified, Sakura had felt herself disclosing Naruto's location and bit herself to keep from letting the words that were trying so hard to escape free.

The tomoe of Sasuke's Sharingan spinning, Sakura saw thousands of herself and Sasuke suddenly popping out of nowhere, and before she could make sense of what was happening he stabbed her once more in the stomach and twisted his blade.

The pain was infinitely more worse this time, and Sakura was quite sure she would die or go insane trying to cope with the agony. There was no time to scream, though, and no strength either; all Sakura do was let the pain pass hopelessly over her. It would be so easy to let go, so easy to just give up and give in, especially if it stopped this terrible pain…

_**NO! We will not give up! Quick—Sakura—do you want to fix this all? Do you want to set everything right again?**_

_What…?_ Sakura's mind was in a daze from all the pain, and her inner self's words were little more than disconnected sounds.

_**Answer me!**_

_Yes… yes, I would like to set everything right…_

_**Good.**_

_But—what are you doing? What will you do?_

_**Just stay quiet and hold on for the ride! SHANNARO!**_

There was a flash of white light and then utter blackness—and then Sakura's world disappeared.

* * *

_**edited 9.15.08**_


	2. Realization

Okay, so a lot of you will notice that the latter part of the chapter was borrowed heavily from the manga version of Chapter 3 and 4 of _Naruto_. Which is obviously not mine nor will it ever be…

OR WILL IT?!

Anyways, sorry about the ending; I know it's rushed and awkward. It's just that I'm afraid I won't have enough time to update and I was in a hurry near the end. I also didn't get the chance to proofread this, so if you see any typos feel free to point them out in your reviews and I'll try to fix them as soon as possible. Also, we're switching Internet service providers, so I'll be without the Internet for a week or so. I'll try to update on the school computers during that time but I don't know how that'll work out. So, to summarize, there might be a bit of a longer wait before Chapter 3 gets up. Sorry!

Ah, yes, and before I forget! Thank you to Lilly for clearing up my confusion about Mangekyou Sharingan. It all worked out in the end.

* * *

_Chapter Two_

A twelve-year-old Sakura awoke with a start. Her heart was beating quickly from a nightmare she did not remember, and there was a strange, agonizing pain in her stomach, but when she looked down there was no wound.

Then it all came rushing back to her. Sasuke—Naruto—Tsunade—Konoha falling—her world disappearing in a flash of white.

A shaft of moonlight painting Sakura's face eerily, the young girl took several deep, calming breaths. She looked down at her skinny arms and soft hands, smooth and devoid of the muscles she had spent years developing. Her long hair brushed against her back—but for the last seven years her hair had been short, cut to just above her shoulders. Her room was achingly familiar, a room she hadn't slept in for at least six years.

She quickly threw the girly pink comforter away from her and rushed to her full-length mirror—and saw her twelve-year-old self staring, wide-eyed, back at her. Raising her shirt, she peeked tentatively at her stomach. The scar where Sasori had impaled her was not there—and that was the final proof Sakura needed.

_I… I've traveled back in time… back to when I was twelve years old…_ she thought dumbly.

Crawling back into her unfamiliar soft bed, Sakura drew the comforter up to her chin and stared at the unfamiliar yet achingly familiar ceiling above her—and for the first time in eight years, allowed the tears that were pricking the back of her eyes to leak down her cheeks.

* * *

"Sakura! Wake up!"

Sakura's eyes opened groggily. She had a terrible headache and her limbs felt disconnected and heavy. It was an effort just to drag herself out of her bed, and she looked exactly as miserable as she felt. There was huge bags under her eyes, blackish-blue and resembling bruises more than anything else, and her pink hair seemed to have aspirations to become a bird's nest.

But that voice—that voice Sakura thought she would never hear again. "M-mom?" she whispered.

"_Sakura!_ You're going to be late to your first day as a gennin?"

_First day… as a gennin…_

Sakura paused in pure shock before grinning. _Oh, yes! Now… now I can finally set everything right…_

"Coming, mom!" she called out, relishing the feel of the little-used word on her tongue.

Shaking off her considerable exhaustion, she opened her closet and dressed in that ridiculous red outfit she hadn't worn in so long. Her longer hair brushed unfamiliarly against her and she had to resist the urge to hack it all off with her kunai—but why should she resist? Sakura realized suddenly, and grinning happily, pulled out a kunai. She frowned at its dull state and decided she would have to sharpen it once she had more time. In just a few minutes her hair was just as short as before (or should she say, just as short as it would be?) and there were long locks of pink hair in the wastebasket beside her desk.

There was a conspicuously empty spot on her dresser where she had kept her picture of Team 7 for as long as she remembered, but Sakura shook off the curious feeling.

"Mom, I'm leaving!" she called out.

"Alright, honey—_Sakura! What did you do with your hair?!_" cried out her mother in pure horror.

Grinning cockily, Sakura ran out the door and jumped onto her house's roof. She got to school that way, jumping from roof to roof, and meanwhile she assessed her physical condition.

She had retained all her knowledge; at the very least, there weren't huge gaps in her memory. However, her body didn't have the endurance or the muscle texture she was used to, nor the chakra levels that she had so painstakingly worked to improve, and by the time she arrived at school, she was slightly winded when it should have been like a walk in the park for her. Sakura was also quite frustrated—nearly a decade of work and stamina exercises had been made useless, and she was already back at square one.

She also noticed that she had arrived far too early. There was no one else in the classroom. She picked a seat randomly, unconsciously choosing the spot where Naruto and Sasuke would be… had sat that very same day, and reflected. It would hard, she knew, to face so many people that had been long dead for her without giving anything away or acting peculiar. And what would she do this time? Should she reveal her advanced skills? Should she tell her teammates, or at least Kakashi-sensei or the Hokage, that she was from the future, as silly as that sounded? She knew without a doubt that she would not act nearly as immature and close-minded, that she would not miss nearly as many opportunities as she had the first time.

She had been so engrossed in her thoughts that she had completely missed everyone walking in. She saw Sasuke sit down and mentally flinched. He looked so—carefree, almost, and Sakura felt tears prick her eyes again.

He seemed to notice her boring holes into the back of his head and he turned around and scowled at her before ignoring her once again.

_Great, pegged as a fangirl once again…_

Sakura shrugged it off. She'd have years longer to refute that impression.

Naruto walked in, and Sakura called out before she could think, "Naruto! Come sit with me!"

The blond-haired, blue-eyed boy did a double take and the students that had arrived turned to stare incredulously at Sakura. Naruto was a pariah, an annoyance, someone to shun and make fun of and whisper cruel things to, but never one to extend the hand of friendship to.

Quite frankly, Sakura was surprised at herself as well.

Naruto grinned euphorically and, fairly bouncing on his feet, said loudly, "Of course, Sakura-chan!"

Sakura smiled softly, nostalgically. Naruto would probably be irrepressible for days, even more annoying than usual, and Sakura found she couldn't be bothered. Naruto was here with her, alive and unhurt, and so was Sasuke… and they were a team once again, or would be.

Ino pranced confidently in, her beautiful blond hair swaying behind her. "Ah—Forehead Girl! What are you doing here before me? Hey, and what happened to your hair? And why are you sitting with Naruto? Only _losers_ sit with Naruto."

Sakura glanced sideways at Naruto and noticed his bright blue eyes dimming infinitesimally, the sort of thing that only his closest friends would ever notice. Turning to Ino, she said, "Please—Ino, don't be mean to Naruto…"

"Oh, what? You finally realized you wouldn't ever get Sasuke-kun and so you settled for _him_? Wow, Forehead Girl, even _you_ could do better."

"Ino," attempted Sakura, "just… please… I'm sorry. Can't we just go back to being friends?"

"_Weirdo_," brushed off Ino carelessly before waltzing to the closest seat to Sasuke. She noticed with a suppressed sense of happiness that he was looking curiously at her for a moment before turning away.

Iruka walked in, and, raising his voice strictly, "Everyone! In your seats. As gennin, you will soon be assigned duties to serve our village. Each of you will be split into teams of three each, and each team will have an experienced jounin as their teacher. You will follow their guidelines and complete your assigned duties," he continued, smiling benignly at the fidgeting gennin but noticing Sakura seemed strangely calm, "and each team is designed so that the weaknesses and strengths of each member balance each other."

He continued naming the teams. "And, in Team 7, there will be Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura"—Naruto danced with joy and Sakura smiled softly—"and Uchiha Sasuke." Naruto fairly wilted and Sakura grinned wider.

"Why—why do I have to be in the same team as _him?"_ demanded Naruto, pointed rudely at Sasuke.

Iruka sighed, having expected something like this. "Because you graduated with the worst grade and Sasuke graduated with the best. We do this to balance the teams, understand?"

"But—but—!" persisted Naruto.

"Whatever. Just don't get in my way, dead last," muttered Sasuke uncaringly.

"_WHAT DID YOU SAY_—_?!"_

"Naruto!" said Sakura sharply, placing a hand on his left arm. "Just—just calm down. Don't listen to him, he's probably just trying to rile you up."

Sasuke stared, surprised, at the girl that was quite obviously _pretending_ to be Sakura. The Sakura that had chased after him for so many years would never have dared said anything against him, much less to his face, and avoided Naruto like the plague. This Sakura… this Sakura seemed so much more different, so much more mature, and there was a haunted look in her emerald eyes he recognized because he often saw that same look when he glanced at the eyes of experienced jounin. But then she turned away and laughed at something Naruto said, and Sasuke decided it had been just a trick of light.

Iruka continued, "In the afternoon we'll be introducing the jounin that will be leading your team. For now, take a quick break. Take this opportunity to eat lunch or relax."

Naruto grinned in an achingly familiar way at Sakura, and asked rather nervously, "Hey… Sakura-chan, do you want to come eat at Ichiraku's with me?"

Looking at his clear, transparent eyes that had been shadowed for far too long, Sakura could not find the heart to refuse him. "Sure, Naruto."

Naruto had no idea why Sakura was being so kind to him and finally acknowledging him, but he decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. Celebrating, Sakura allowed him to lead her to Ichiraku's.

* * *

"Why is our sensei _so damn late?"_ burst out Naruto impatiently. "Everyone else's teachers have already left and ours hasn't even shown up yet!"

"Maybe he forgot… or something came up," offered Sakura hopelessly. She had forgotten how awkward it was to be twelve; no matter how much Naruto adored her, he was far from being her friend, and Sasuke hadn't let down any of his guards and instead brooded in the corner.

Team Seven… needed a great deal of work, to say the least.

Naruto bounced over the blackboard.

"What are you doing?" asked Sakura curiously, as though she didn't already know.

He chuckled to himself, wedging an eraser in between the door and its frame. "It's what he gets for being late."

"_Naruto,"_ sighed Sakura exasperatedly.

Sasuke watched them deprecatingly. "Do you honestly think a jounin will fall for such a simple trick?"

And then Kakashi walked in.

All of Team Seven watched dumbly as the eraser began its journey downward, finally landing in his silver hair with an equally white puff of dust.

There was utter silence.

Then Naruto burst out laughing uncontrollably, and Sakura disguised her giggles as several well-placed coughs. A sideways glance at Sasuke revealed a small smile in his eyes that only his closest friends would have noticed.

Smiling benignly and appearing unruffled by the prank, Kakashi greeted, "Well, how do I say this? My first impression is… I don't like you three at all."

All three faceplanted.

* * *

"Right. Let's begin with some introductions. Your likes, dislikes, dreams… whatever you want to tell us. Who wants to start?" drawled Kakashi lazily.

There was a pregnant pause.

"Isn't this a fun team," muttered Sakura to herself. Sasuke glanced momentarily at her before returning his gaze to the ground.

"Well, Sakura, since you so kindly volunteered yourself—"

"What!?" exclaimed Sakura. "Nuh-uh! You're going first."

"Yeah!" seconded Naruto. "You look suspicious, with that mask and weird white hair—how old are you anyways!?"

The older man sighed long-sufferingly. "Since you insist… My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you about my likes and dislikes. My dreams for the future? … I have several. And I have lots of hobbies… Now it's your turn! Right to left."

Bouncing on his heels excitedly, Naruto began, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like ramen, and my favorite is the ramen from Ichiraku's ramen stand! I hate the three minutes it takes for ramen to cook the most. My dream is to surpass the village Hokage and then have all the people of the village acknowledge my existence!"

Sasuke spoke. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I dislike many things but I don't really like anything. And… the word 'dream' isn't the right word… I have an _ambition_… to resurrect my clan and kill a certain man."

A heavy silence settled around the team and the wind blew rather dramatically and a cloud passed over the sun, suddenly darkening the day. Sakura had the most inane urge to start laughing at the dramatic atmosphere.

Emerald eyes dancing with her hidden laughter, Sakura opened her mouth to speak before Kakashi could urge her on. "I am Haruno Sakura! I like… all sorts of flowers, but I hate sakura flowers. People think that's weird, but it's true…" Noticing the strange glances Kakashi and Sasuke were giving her, Sakura hurriedly continued, "My dream is to become the best medic-nin in Konoha! I dislike people who betray others"—she had an unwilling flashback to that night by the bench—"and my hobbies… well, I don't really have any."

Sasuke observed her surreptitiously. Where had this ambition to become a medic-nin come from? He remembered her vaguely from his classes as naturally gifted at genjutsu but abysmally weak in the other areas of ninjutsu—and medic-nin needed to be competent in all areas. What had happened to the predictable, annoying Sakura that badgered him constantly for dates and was a mediocre ninja?

"Tomorrow," began Kakashi, seemingly oblivious, "we are going to start some survival training." He laughed sinisterly.

For old time's sake, Sakura asked, "What's so funny, sensei?"

"Well… it's just that…"

The sadistic old man looked like he was enjoying the expressions of anticipatory nervousness on their faces.

"Of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine pass. The rest will be sent back to the academy. The exam and training has a failing rate of 66 percent."

Naruto had an expression of mute horror on his face and even Sasuke looked a bit nervous. Sakura hurriedly schooled her face into one of shock and tried not to shift uncomfortably when Kakashi's gaze lingered on her.

"But—but—what about all that hard work—what was the point of graduating?" cried out Naruto.

"Oh, that?" confirmed Kakashi lightly. "That was just to see who had the _chance_ at becoming gennin. Anyways, tomorrow, meet me at the training field and bring all your shinobi tools—kunai, tags, whatever. Oh, and skip breakfast or else you'll throw up."

One thing Sakura knew she was going to change about her past without a doubt: she would make sure to absolutely stuff herself.

**_

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**_Thank you for reading this! Please review, if only just to tell me that you read it. If something stands out, like a particular quote or whatever, please point it out! And remember, if you notice any typos or awkward wording, please please PLEASE tell me. I didn't get the chance to proofread this._**

**_Please, if it's something as little as "I liked your story, please continue," please post it! I absolutely hate it when writers say that they won't update until they get a certain number of reviews and I think that's horribly immature of them, but reviews are ninety nine point nine percent of the reason why I continue with my stories and update quicker._**


	3. The Start of a Team

**Disclaimer: -sigh- Do you guys even need to ask?**

------

_Chapter 3_

Sakura growled at her kunai. Several of them peppered the hitting board, which was not too far from her. She had been practicing several aiming exercises that she had picked up from Tenten, and the results had been less than satisfactory.

Her arms were a great deal shorter than she was used to, which was only to be expected since she had just gone from age twenty to age twelve. But that made for several problems—least of all, the fact that she would constantly misjudge her reach. She had to alter her kunai throws and all of her taijutsu moves to accommodate for the considerable difference, and it had mostly been a frustrating process of trial and error. She still misjudged and knew that in a battle, forgetting about her now shorter reach could be the difference between life and death.

Getting up at four o'clock, before the world had stirred awake, was nothing new to Sakura. Tsunade's training lessons had often lasted from four to eight o'clock at night. But today, Sakura often noticed herself almost nodding off to sleep and cursed her unconditioned, weak body.

Kakashi had instructed them to be at the training field by eight. Knowing him, he wouldn't be any less than two hours late. Just to be safe, she should probably try to make it a half hour before him. So, that meant she could practice until approximately 9:25, if she accounted for the time it would take her to walk to the training field. Additionally, she had to make sure not to strain her substantially weaker body.

Sakura noticed a faint twinge about her legs and reluctantly dropped to the ground, leaning against a convenient tree. Her legs would be moderately sore tomorrow, she could tell. Sighing, she noticed the red tip of the sun peeking out over the high walls surrounding Konoha. She loved mornings like this, mornings after a nice, hard training session when she could relax and watch the whole world wake up around her. Before apprenticing with Tsunade, she had never been much of a morning person, but she had long since decided that she would get up as early as need be only to witness such a magical moment.

With her back still resting against the tree, Sakura's hands scrabbled over the ground in search of a nearby kunai. Her fingers closed over her prize, a new set of impeccably sharpened kunai she had bought shortly after Kakashi had dismissed them. Making quick adjustments she had drilled into herself, Sakura aimed at the target and threw. She rolled her eyes again when it struck the board, just shy of the bullseye.

Yawning, she stretched like a cat and decided that she had had enough training for her twelve-year-old body today. She turned her thoughts to other things.

Sakura had decided that she would not reveal the truth to her teammates or to anyone else. Not only did it sound ridiculous, it _was_ ridiculous and unbelievable. She herself would never have believed it if it hadn't happened to her. That meant that she had couldn't show any of her advanced skills or knowledge, unless she wanted people to get suspicious.

What had she been like at twelve? mused Sakura. Annoying, for sure. She didn't blame Sasuke for that. Immature, obsessed with Sasuke-kun, with sub-par skills. Sakura was, quite frankly, surprised she had passed Kakashi's bell test—_the bell test!_ she remembered suddenly.

What would she do for the bell test? If she had resolved not to reveal her advanced skills, how would she manage to outsmart Kakashi and manage to get Sasuke-kun and Naruto working with her? She didn't doubt that she would have a problem with Naruto. Already, he was becoming her close friend. But Sasuke… for years, the only Sakura he had known was the one that wasn't even worth noticing, much less working with.

In her mind, Sakura already had her plan mapped out. It should all work out, it was practically perfect…

… _If_ everything went off as planned. Sasuke, being the arrogant, broody person he was, would probably scoff at the very idea of teamwork… perhaps she could do it with Naruto alone—but no, that wouldn't be teamwork, not at all.

Sakura groaned. She had long since learned not to strain her admittedly sharp mind for solutions to problems. They would come on their own, she knew; she had only to wait and hope that the solution would strike her before the bell test was finished.

And even though she had already completed the bell test and passed, she couldn't help but feel nervous.

------

Naruto was _bored._

He had never thought it possible. After all, the time for him to take the test that Kakashi had so sadistically teased them with was looming closer and closer. He even had a vague ache in his stomach, though that was nothing unusual. Days on end of eating only ramen did that to you.

Perhaps he should go visit Sakura-chan? He was puzzled by her sudden lack of enmity towards him. He wasn't an oblivious fool, no matter what people seemed to think. He knew that Sakura-chan had considered him gross, annoying, so he couldn't seem to help trying to get her to change her mind. But now… Sakura-chan was actually… being _nice_ to him.

It was a strange sensation, but he liked it. Every time Sakura-chan laughed at his jokes instead of calling him annoying, he had a warm feeling that filled him from the tips of his toes to the tips of his fingers. He could even feel the Kyuubi shift disgustedly every time he had that feeling.

Yes… maybe he should go Sakura… he knew that she wouldn't mind. At the very least, they could be bored waiting for Kakashi's test… whatever it was… together.

_Together._

He liked the sound of that word.

------

"Hi, guys!" called Sakura as she made her way to where Kakashi had told them to report for the exam.

"Sakura-chan!" cried Naruto in response. "Why are you so late? It's 9:30 already!"

Sasuke stared deprecatingly at her.

"Well, you saw him yesterday," reasoned Sakura. "Chances are, if he was that late for something as important as team introductions, he'll be late for this too."

Naruto grumbled, disgruntled. "But still… you should be suffering with us!"

Shrugging, Sakura pulled out an energy bar and bit on it.

This time, Sasuke spoke up.

"He told us not to eat."

Sakura looked up, surprised Sasuke had spoken. "Well, think about it. He told us not to eat because it'd be so hard we'd throw up, right? But if it _is_ so hard, we're better off eating despite that and getting all the nutrition we need." To punctuate her remark, she took another bite of the energy bar.

"Wow, good idea!" agreed Naruto enthusiastically. "Do you have another bar?"

"Yeah," smiled Sakura. She pulled two more bars out of her pockets. "I brought one for each of you, in case both of you didn't have any breakfast."

Sasuke did not like being told what to do. He did not like being told that he was being foolish, least of all from this annoying little pink-haired fangirl. And yet… what she had said made sense, and if it helped him in his quest to obtain enough power to defeat his brother, he would put up with it. For now. At least she hadn't attempted to make a bento covered in obnoxious pink hearts like that Ino girl had.

Wordlessly, he held out a hand.

Sakura told herself it was silly, that she was reading too much into his gesture. But the fact that he had actually accepted her help rather than brushed it off—hospital—_apples_—Orochimaru—made her suddenly, irrationally happy and she couldn't keep herself from smiling brightly at him.

Sasuke was vaguely puzzled by this, but he ignored her and concentrated on finishing the energy bar.

When Kakashi arrived nearly an hour later, he saw three suspiciously innocent faces and a piece of a wrapper in the nearby trash can.

He chose not to comment.

"Good morning, guys!" he called out cheerily, relishing the looks of annoyance and anger on his students' faces. He put down a clock on a convenient tree stump and held up two bells nonchalantly. "Your task is to retrieve these two bells from me before noon. The one person that cannot get a bell from me gets no lunch."

"Kakashi-sensei!" whined Sakura. "Is that why you told us not to eat breakfast?"

Kakashi's answer was a self-explanatory evil grin.

Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke exchanged glances, the first two fighting to hide their grins. Even Sasuke looked a bit amused.

Kakashi felt quite disappointed at the lack of hunger and horror on their faces.

Nonetheless, he continued, "The person who doesn't get a bell fails and must return to the academy. You can even use your shruikens. None of you will succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill." He paused for a dramatic effect and saw Naruto and Sasuke tense up, but was disappointed when Sakura looked unaffected. Hmph.

"Ha!" scoffed Naruto, hiding his tenseness. "You're so slow you couldn't even dodge a blackboard eraser—"

"Naruto!" hissed Sakura. "He's a _jonin_."

"So what!?"

Kakashi looked amusedly at them.

"It _means_, Naruto, that he's been doing ninja things since before you were even born!" whispered Sakura back to Naruto. "So shut up and let me think of a plan, okay!?"

"But, Sakura-chaaaaaaan…" he pleaded, but his voice was clearly defeated.

The older jonin analyzed the seemingly innocuous exchange. Sakura knew that while she most definitely was not the strongest kunoichi, she had a strength in planning and analytical thought. She also seemed to know that Naruto, all brute force, would rush into fighting him without a plan, so she planned to use his strength and her mind to somehow overcome him. And even the (seemingly) thick-headed Naruto seemed to know that and was content to let Sakura plan out. Kakashi could feel the vestiges of a strong teamwork and partnership between them—but would they be able to include Sasuke as well?

He felt strangely excited about the exam this time.

------

Sakura felt Naruto shifting impatiently beside her and was hard-pressed not to let out a stream of curses that no innocent, girly twelve-year-old should know. She had _told_ him to stay absolutely still or else Kakashi-sensei would find them—well, who was she kidding, even in her jonin days she could rarely hide her presence from Kakashi, and with Naruto along… the old man had an uncanny, almost supernatural way of sensing others' presence.

"Sakura-chan," muttered Naruto quietly, or at least as quietly as it was possible for _Naruto_ to get. "Why are we hiding? Don't you have a plan yet?"

She sighed and wondered if Naruto was aware he had just as good as screamed out loud to Kakashi their current location. On retrospect, he probably didn't. But Naruto would always be Naruto, so she muttered back, "Yeah, I have a plan, but we need Sasuke-kun's help for it."

"Sasuke-teme?" hissed Naruto. _"Why?"_

"Well, think about it, Naruto. Have you ever seen a team with any more or any less than three people?"

Naruto squinted his eyes and after a short pause replied, "No."

"See? How could he pass only two and send one back? This is a test to see how _well_ we work together, to see how well we'd be able to cooperate on a mission."

"That… actually makes sense…" exclaimed Naruto wonderingly.

Sakura thumped him on the head. "Baka! You want to scream out loud to Kakashi-sensei where we are?"

Giving her a wounded puppy look that had Sakura's heart twanging guiltily, Naruto asked, "What's our plan, Sakura-chan?"

"Simple," hissed back Sakura. "You know how obsessed he is with that perverted orange book, right? We could threaten to blow the ending, and then he'll get distracted! And you and Sasuke-kun could work at distracting him together, and while he's distracted I'd take both the bells. And we'd have passed!"

"But—then—wouldn't you be the only one who got the bell? So you'd be the only one that passed…"

"Naruto!" rebuked Sakura. "Weren't you listening? He'd pass us as long as he saw teamwork. But just in case, once I'd get both the bells, I'd give one to you and one to Sasuke-kun. That way we would _all_ have gotten the bells!"

Naruto nodded sagely. "So how're you going to get Sasuke-teme to work with us, Sakura-chan?" He scowled at his rival's name.

"I don't know," confessed Sakura. "He's obsessed with gaining power, but he never works with anybody. I guess I'd have to make it seem like it was in his best interests, that there was no other way to beat Kakashi-sensei…"

"It'll be okay, Sakura-chan!" Naruto attempted to console her. "You'll have me with you—!"

"No, I will _not_ have you with me. You're going to stay right here. Knowing you two, you'll probably start fighting and forget about Kakashi-sensei altogether." She swore she felt something hairy and with lots of legs climbing up her leg… she tried her best to shift slightly and winced at the rustling noise the rebellious leaves of the tree they were in made.

"But—Sakura-chan—"

"Listen—the plot of Kakashi's current volume _Icha Icha Paradise _is like this—Kameko finds Yukio er… _getting cozy_ with Hiyori, so then she flees. She runs into Taro, and it's revealed that actually he's the childhood friend that she promised to marry. So he comforts Kameko and she realizes that she loves _both_ Taro and Yukio, but since she thinks Yukio loves Hiyori, she lets Taro take her back to his home and they… have lots of fun, let's just put it that way, Naruto. Except then Yukio, having escaped from Hiyori, goes to Kameko but sees her locked in a passionate embrace with Taro. Feeling betrayed, he goes back to Hiyori where they spend the rest of the night having hot angry… _fun_, in which Yukio almost punishes Hiyori. But Hiyori thinks it's wildly sexy and stays with him. Kameko, who has now given her virginity to Taro, becomes his girlfriend but yearns after Yukio, and guiltily whenever she has sex with Taro, she imagines he is actually Yukio. Once she actually calls out Yukio's name when she's in bed with Taro… and that's when it ends, at that cliffhanger."

Naruto was blushing wildly by the end, his tomato red face clashing with his blond hair. "H-how do you know this, Sakura-chan?  
he asked hoarsely.

"Trust me, you don't want to know. Now, do you have the plot memorized? Make sure you have every little thing memorized, alright? Knowing Sasuke-kun, he probably won't listen to a thing I say and get everything all mixed up."

His face now curiously ashen and gray, Naruto nodded dumbly, his mouth wide open.

"Good! Now, stay here until I come back for you and say it's okay, alright?"

She left him like that, his mouth wide open and his face gray.

------

Kakashi wondered what his three students were up to. Sakura and Naruto had hidden high in the branches of one of the large trees in the training ground. It would've been a good hiding spot, and Sakura was perfectly concealed, but Naruto was making far too much noise and shuffling around far too much for them to be undetected. Well, Naruto would never have been a stealthy type anyways.

Sasuke was nestled into the roots of another tree, directly behind him. An uninspired hiding spot, the first an enemy ninja would have checked in real combat, but he had hidden himself well and all that remained of him was a shadow.

He was surprised none of them had attempted an attack yet. It had been over an hour and the sun was rising steadily in the sky. He would've thought Naruto, at least, would have run out of patience, but apparently Sakura was better at making people listen to her than he had thought.

Naruto… the container of the Kyuubi couldn't have had a more unlikely personality. Most of the demon containers were half-insane, morbid, but Naruto was the direct opposite. He was loving and bright and optimistic. He had precious few friends, but already he had shown a fierce protectiveness towards them. He had enough determination and brute strength for a hundred ninjas, and though he would never be a tactical genius, Kakashi was sure the young boy had a promising future ahead of him.

He wasn't as sure of Sasuke, though. The boy had had a dark, tragic past, and now his mind was consumed with thoughts of revenge and power. For a child, he was far too dark… though he was a genius, just like his brother, Kakashi was reluctant to let that boy become a ninja.

Sakura… she was a good student, he had learned from her Academy transcripts. She was book smart, always scoring at the top of her class—she and Sasuke seemed to have been engaged in some sort of competition for who could get the higher score on a test, but she failed abysmally in the physical portion of her education. She seemed immature and obsessed with Sasuke, at least from what he had heard. But the Sakura he met on this training field was a far different Sakura than the one he had heard of…

Maybe he _would_ pass this team after all…

------

Sakura bit her lip tentatively. She had sensed Sasuke's presence and was now concealed in the bush directly behind him. Before she revealed her presence though, she thought it best to have some sort of plan—

"You can stop hiding yourself and being annoying, you know," growled Sasuke.

Sakura jumped in surprise, then was immediately dizzy with a new wave of feelings. Her teammate—Sasuke-kun—gone for eight—or was it nine?—_gone_, disappeared, but now he was back—he was talking to her—he was _alive_, he was here, he was finally back with Naruto and her again—

Giving herself a mental shake, Sakura had to remind herself that she was no longer twenty years old and with the weight of the world on her shoulders, but twelve and just beginning the life of a ninja.

"I…," she began, but broke off, wondering what to tell him. Obviously his skills were better than she had remembered. How else had he sensed her carefully concealed presence?

He hadn't even turned his face to her. He was concentrating on watching Kakashi, his back completely unprotected towards her, and Sakura felt a sudden irrational sense of anger that he considered her so little a threat he hadn't even bothered to protect his back, his most vulnerable spot, against her. She would _make_ him acknowledge her, she would _make_ him…

"Why haven't you attacked Kakashi-sensei yet?" she asked instead, using her years of experience to mask her anger perfectly.

"I'm waiting for the idiot to attack him."

"Why?" At least he was answering her questions instead of ignoring her, which was always far better than being right out ignored.

"So I can analyze the old man's weaknesses and make a plan."

"You won't find any weaknesses."

That made him pause. Sakura knew he was offended, wondering how a _fangirl_ could think she would know more than _him_.

He turned his face slightly towards her. Mentally cheering that he had at least acknowledged her for once, she put an impassive face.

"Think about it," explained Sakura, her voice calm and cold. "He's a jonin. He's probably been a jonin for twice as long as we've been alive. Do you really think we can beat him?"

Ignoring her once again, he turned back to watching Kakashi.

"And obviously," continued Sakura, "this is to assess our teamwork."

There. Her trump card.

She knew she had his attention by the way he suddenly tensed up.

"For instance, have you ever seen a team of less than three members?" She didn't wait for him to answer, because she knew he wouldn't. "No, you haven't. So how could he only pass two and let the other go back to the academy? The whole team either passes or fails, not the individuals."

He was still tense. Then, slowly, gingerly, as if experimenting, he asked, "What's your plan?"

In spite of herself, Sakura grinned blindingly. "We need to somehow stop the use of his hands—that way, he won't be able to fight against us or perform any jutsus. So we could threaten to reveal the ending of that pervy book he's so obsessed with—while we're talking, he'd cover his ears, so his arms would be occupied. Then one of us—me, because it'd be the easiest and least expected—could swipe both of the bells. Then I'd hand one over to Naruto and one over to you, Sasuke-kun, and that way all three of us would have gotten the bells and passed the test!"

"That's a ridiculous plan."

Sakura gave him an acid look she often had given Naruto, noticing he looked almost visibly surprised to be on the receiving end of such a look. "Do you have any better ideas? If you do I'd be glad to hear it."

He asked, quite dignified, "What will I tell him for the plot of that… _book_ of his?"

Triumphant, Sakura explained, "Okay, make sure you have this memorized! This is the only ending that makes sense, _and_ it's the real ending. I told Naruto it too, but he'll probably get it mixed up."

His dark eyes bored into her. She felt slightly unnerved to be at the receiving end of such an intense stare.

"Hiyori is sick and tired of Kameko leading on Yukio, who can't decide which one he loves. Hiyori knows that Kameko, who's really poor, is after Yukio's money. So she goes to Yukio and they have a passionate argument, and before even thinking about it she kisses Yukio. Kameko walks in on them and Hiyori is triumphant, because after all it means Kameko knows Yukio is hers. She then hears from Yukio that he walked in on Taro and Kameko… er… procreating, so she consoles him. She knows Yukio's heart still belongs to the cold but beautiful Kameko, but hopes there is still a place for her. So Hiyori and Yukio, um, well, yes, _you know_ what they do. The next day she finds out Kameko, having slept with Taro, is now his girlfriend, and she resolves to revenge herself on Kameko for stealing and then breaking Yukio's heart."

Was it just her or did she detect the slightest tinge of pink on Sasuke's cheek? And were his eyes really just a bit dazed?

"How… do you know these things?"

Sakura wanted to tell him that nine years around Kakashi _did_ have some negative effects on you, but decided that that most definitely would not make sense. "Whatever, do you have that memorized? Naruto will _definitely_ mess up and mix up the characters somehow." She wondered why she asked. Sasuke-kun's photographic memory all but ensured he remembered every little thing he encountered.

Sakura took his silence as a yes.

"Okay then! The minute you see Naruto rushing towards Kakashi-sensei, you do the same. Then both of you start telling Kakashi-sense the plot. Hopefully he'll be distracted enough that I'll be able to steal the bells. If he isn't then… improvise!"

Sasuke grunted to show he understood and turned back to Kakashi. Taking it as a clear dismissal, Sakura prepared to go back to Naruto's hiding spot and set her plan in motion.

She grinned inwardly to herself.

------

**Yes, it's a pathetic ending, I know. Don't be mean!**

**And wow, guys! Eleven reviews for just one chapter? You are all so awesome! I love you! XD Keep it up, okay? :P Reviews make writers write more…**

**I'm sorry for the long wait. I would have had this chapter up earlier but real life got in the way.**

**Thanks so much for your wonderful support! I really do hope this wave of reviews continues, of course, and they do inspire me to write more, and faster.**

**I was going to include the actual bell test in this chapter, but it was already around four thousand words, so the next chapter will have the bell test in it. :) Has anyone guessed Sakura's plan yet?**

**I do hope the chapter didn't sound too choppy and messy. I didn't really have the time to read through it and edit it for any mistakes or awkwardness, so if you notice something, please point it out! I'm probably going to go through this at one time or another to edit stuff and make this less messy.**


	4. A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

**Disclaimer: la, la, la, la, la… I can't hear you!**

**Thanks for all the great reviews, guys. (: They really did make my day. But I was a bit disappointed by the number. Oh well! The ones that did leave reviews—you're all amazing, and the ones that favorited me or added me to their alerts list, you were all exactly the silent support that encouraged me to keep going! :D**

**There's someone reading this from Hong Kong? That's so amazing! That's literally halfway across the world for me. –waves- nice to meet you, Hong-Kong-ian!**

**Meh. I'm definitely not happy with this chapter at all. Writer's block has kicked in! And so early in the story too. Definitely not a good sign, lol. I did try my best, but every word felt like pulling teeth and so this chapter is much shorter than it usually is. But I thought I should get it up anyways and—yay! It's Christmas! I don't celebrate it myself, but happy holiday of choice, everybody!**

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_Chapter Four_

Kakashi wondered what his clever little students were doing. He heard Naruto shifting impatiently in a nearby tree branch. Sasuke was staying impressively still, but his heavy breathing alerted Kakashi to Sasuke's presence. Heavy breathing was a natural reaction to the emotions of apprehension or anticipation, and only experienced ninja had learned to control that reaction. Now, why would Sasuke be nervous? Tensing up for the attack he was sure was coming soon, he also noticed Sakura making her way from Sasuke's tree to Naruto's.

Interesting.

He probably should be stopping her. An enemy nin wouldn't be nearly so accommodating towards her. In fact, by now all three of them would be dead in a true combat situation. But in spite of all that, Kakashi found he was actually… _curious_ to see what their plans were. He waited, perched on his log, as Sakura scrambled up to the tree branches on which Naruto was waiting and whispered something to him.

His keen ears then picked up on a hushed argument between them.

"Naruto!" growled Sakura. "Stay _here!_ We can't rush into this—"

"_No!_ I'm tired of waiting!" shouted back Naruto.

"Baka—_NARUTO!"_ Sakura broke off, and Kakashi saw Naruto jump out of the branch and rush towards him.

So. It seemed Sakura wasn't as good at keeping Naruto controlled as he had thought she was. Such a shame. And he _was_ looking forward to seeing their plan in action, as well. He supposed it just wasn't meant to be.

He took a moment to assess Naruto's charge towards him. He was being speedy, which was always good, but was putting far too much pressure on the balls of his feet. Kakashi would have to teach him to step more lightly, to put more pressure on his toes; that way, Naruto would be even quicker on his feet—

It took him a moment to realize that he was already thinking about what to teach the three before even deciding whether they had passed the test.

He was so distracted by this sudden revelation that he let Naruto come closer than he had planned. Quickly changing his mental plan, he lashed out his foot in a snapping kick that had the smaller boy flipping wildly over Kakashi's head and landing head-first, right next to the tree stump on which Kakashi had been sitting.

_And_ right next to Kakashi's copy of _Icha Icha Paradise_, which was open to a page with a particularly graphic drawing.

Naruto turned tomato red, gulped, quickly scrambled up, and, looking at the book as though it was poisonous, scooted at least ten feet away from it. Amused at his antics, Kakashi let him.

"W-w-what _is_ that?" exclaimed Naruto in horror.

The older man quickly felt the warm bubbly feeling that he associated with the perverted series. "The series is called _Icha Icha Paradise_. This one is _Icha Icha Paradise: Love Triangle_. This one is really pretty tame but—"

"Ah! _That_ one! I heard about the ending!" cried Naruto excitedly.

… What?

This definitely was not what Kakashi had been expecting.

"_Really,"_ he said disbelievingly.

"Yeah—you know how Yukio and Hiyori get cozy with each other—yeah, Kameko sees, and so she's heartbroken because, well, you know, she loves Yukio—"

That… was actually making sense. He listened closer, intrigued. Kakashi felt Sasuke coming up towards them, but the boy was making no effort to conceal his presence, and anyways his aura lacked the attacking intent. Thus, he tuned in closer to Naruto's conversation, resolving that even if Sasuke did suddenly change his mind, he would have plenty of time to defend himself. After all, they _were_ still gennin. "So, we find out if—?"

"Dobe," remarked Sasuke.

Kakashi turned to Sasuke. "Is there something you want to add to this discussion? I doubt _you_ know the ending of _Love Triangle_, so if you could please shut up while Naruto—"

Turning the slightest shade of pink, Sasuke muttered, "He's got it all wrong. Kameko doesn't _love_ Yukio, she only wants his money. So she gives up on him and moves on to Taro—"

"Only because she loves him as well!" interjected Naruto fiercely. "Sakura _told_ me you'd get everything wrong—!"

"Yeah, right. She loves _two_ people? Get real. So anyways, Hiyori consoles Yukio—"

"Stop being stupid, teme! Hiyori's the one that _stole_ Yukio from Kameko—"

"Because she knew Kameko only wanted Yukio for the money!"

"But Kameko loves Yukio too!"

"Yeah, so first thing she does is she has sex with Taro?"

"Well—Taro is—"

"Children," commanded Kakashi. He honestly didn't know who to believe. Both of their explanations each had evidence in the book supporting them… but they still claimed wildly different things. Immersed, he asked them, "Who told you this?"

"Sakura-chan did!"

"Sakura."

"Well," Kakashi said triumphantly. "This was _obviously_ her plan: to distract me by having you two threaten to spoil _Love Triangle_'s ending, and meanwhile to steal both bells. I admit, it was very good, but it seems she herself mixed up the plot—"

"_Or_, maybe I did it on purpose, because I thought that that plan would be too obvious, but I still needed a way to distract you," said a distinctly feminine voice, sounding victorious. "Naruto, Sasuke-kun!" She threw both boys two small metallic _things_ that made a distinct jingling noise.

Both of the boys caught the bells deftly.

"See, Kakashi-sensei?" said Naruto eagerly. "We pass! All three of us got the bells!"

He felt himself going gray with shock. A gennin team had defeated him. _Gennin_. Not even that yet, but merely Academy graduates. And _he_ was a seasoned jonin, better than a whole army of gennin combined.

Not only that, they had even managed to get around the fact that there were only _two_ bells.

Kakashi, the White Fang of Konoha, had been thoroughly and completely out-planned by three _gennin_.

He was _definitely_ getting too old for his job.

----

Naruto had proposed a party at Ichiraku's ramen stand in celebration, of course. Well, more like he had dragged Sakura and expected everyone to follow. Kakashi, looking very gray and wilted, had mumbled some excuse about leaving his milk out of the refrigerator. To Sakura's surprise, Sasuke-kun had decided to go along with Naruto and her, though he was currently casting a cloud of gloom and doom wherever he was.

Sakura didn't care. This was the closest to _perfect_ her life had been in a long time, and so nothing could bring her down.

The rest of their impromptu party was a whirlwind of laughing at Naruto's antics, trying to include Sasuke in their conversations, and slurping down delicious, warm ramen. It was over almost too soon, but Sakura knew that if she lingered any longer her parents would definitely start getting worried about her. Regretfully, she told her goodbyes to both Naruto and Sasuke. Naruto almost broke down, though she knew his reaction was greatly exaggerated, and Sasuke had barely any reaction at all.

"I'm home, Mom! I passed the ninja test I was telling you about last night!" she called out as she entered her house.

"That's great, dear!" her mother called back from the kitchen. "Now, I seem to have recalled a certain someone having _cut_ her pink hair in the morning, despite what I had told her earlier about her having the most _gorgeous_ hair, and how she must never, _never_ cut it. And I really hope it was just my imagination, because if it wasn't—"

Eyes widening comically, Sakura stammered, "J-just your imagination, Mom! I'll be in my room if you need me!"

"Dinner will be around eight. Your dad says he'll be home by then."

"Great!" Sakura made her escape, running up the stairs. She burst into her frilly, pink room and, feeling giddy, collapsed on her bed with its lacy comforters.

It was still the room of a young girl, a naïve, innocent girl. But that wasn't the type of girl Sakura was now. Reflecting to herself, she wondered whether she would still have become a ninja if she had known what was ahead of her. And what if she hadn't become a ninja? What would she be doing right now?

Immersed in her thoughts, she barely noticed when the exhaustion of the day caught up with her and she slipped into dreams.

She was still lying, in the exact same position, on her bed. She was still staring up at the ceiling; her eyes were wide open. She felt completely awake. Perhaps that was why she hadn't noticed she was sleeping.

_Sssssssss…_

In her dream, Sakura, startled by the sudden hiss, pushed herself up and looked around. "Who's there?"

_Sssssssss…_

Oh, this was getting ridiculous. It was probably just her hearing things, or someone playing a prank…

_Ssssssssssasssssukessssssss…_

She swore she heard Sasuke's name in _that_ particular hiss. Pushing herself out of her bed, she glanced around her room, brightly lit and obnoxiously pink.

"This isn't very funny!" she called out.

_Sssssssss…_

An ice-cold hand stroked the hollow of her neck.

Jumping, she whirled around, and, channeling chakra to her fists, prepared to pummel her opponent.

With a shock, she realized the man was Orochimaru. This _couldn't_ be happening, this _couldn't_ be real… but his aura was there, it was oppressive, menacing, it was _him_, but it couldn't be…

He blocked her suddenly powerless punch and took a step closer.

"G-get away from me!" demanded Sakura, hating herself for stammering. "I don't know what you want—"

Orochimaru, _damn him_, smiled widely. "Ssasssuke-kun," he said, a slight hiss in his voice. "I have you… I finally have you…"

"I'm not Sasuke-kun! I'm Sakura! Get away from me!" A strand of pink hair fell into her line of sight and reassured her.

"Ssssassuke-_kun_… don't hide from me…"

Sakura caught her reflection in the full-body mirror behind Orochimaru and saw… in her place… _Sasuke_.

Distracted, it was impossible for her to defend herself, and all she could make sense of was a searing pain in her neck. She screamed herself hoarse as her world shattered.

----

"Sakura? Sakura! Sakura!?"

Sakura came conscious slowly, groggily. She felt like she had slept for a long time, yet curiously she did not feel refreshed at all. There was a throbbing at her neck. But it dissipated the moment she noticed it, and in her almost-drugged state she dismissed it as a figment of her imagination.

"D-Dad?" she muttered, wincing at her hoarse voice.

"Are you okay, honey?" asked her father concernedly, his chocolate brown eyes dark with worry.

"Yeah," she sighed. "What happened?"

"I came home and talked with your mom for a few minutes. Then we heard screaming from your room."

For the first time, Sakura became aware of her mother's presence in the room. Her face was contorted with worry. "Sakura, blossom, are you alright?" asked her mother, repeating her father's question. "You were yelling something frightful," she confirmed.

"O-oh," replied Sakura. "I guess I just had a nightmare."

"What were you dreaming _about_?" asked her father, leaning over her. "To make you scream like that…"

Sakura felt the memory of her dream slipping away. A hissing, a slithering… an ominous presence… but she really couldn't recall it at all. "That's funny… I don't remember."

"Weird," remarked her mother. "Well, if you're sure you're okay, come downstairs. It's time for dinner."

----

**Yes, that was my pathetic attempt at foreshadowing. –shifty eyes- Can anyone guess what that dream means? I'll give you cyber brownies if you guess right! :P**

**Oh yeah, my review plea. -is a shameless review whore-**

**Reviews are the things that encourage me to write. So I'm begging you guys all for some. :) Even if it's just a little thing like, "I liked your story" or "Update soon please!" It really makes my day. I keep on forgetting to reply to all the reviews, which is really weird since that's what I usually do. XD But yeah. Review and I will give you a yummy cyber brownie!**


	5. Curiouser and Curiouser

_Chapter 5_

----

"Hey, Naruto!" greeted Sakura. She nodded to Sasuke, who did not nod back.

"Sakura-chan!" cried Naruto excitedly, bouncing up from his perch on the ground. "Can you _believe_ it? Kakashi-sensei _told_ us to meet him here at the training grounds at six, and it's already nine and he hasn't arrived yet!"

Sakura laughed, patting Naruto on the head. "You know how he is, Naruto. I wonder what he'll teach us?"

"His super-secret techniques!" exclaimed Naruto excitedly. "And how to become a jonin!"

The pinkette saw Sasuke roll his eyes and mutter _dobe_ under his breath. "What do _you_ think he'll teach us, Sasuke-kun?" she asked him, her voice slightly condescending. She was glad that Sasuke was back with them, of course, and she would always be, but his gloomy attitude did tend to wear on one's nerves after a while.

"Probably he'll test our abilities to see what he needs to teach us first," drawled Sasuke boredly, looking somewhere beyond Sakura. "Then he'll formulate a training plan."

Naruto's face wrinkled up. "But… that's so boring! We're gennin now!"

"_Barely_ gennin. We don't even have any missions under our belts, Naruto," corrected Sakura.

"But we will!"

"After he trains us—"

"Welcome, team!" cried a sunny voice.

Her aura suddenly intimidating, Sakura turned on Kakashi. "And why are _you_ so late, Kakashi-sensei?" she asked dangerously.

The older man found that he actually felt… nervous… Rubbing the back of his head, he explained, "I just got lost on the road of life!"

The strength of Sakura's glare increased threefold as her other teammates duplicated it.

"Right!" began Kakashi hurriedly. "Our first training session! I don't really have anything planned, so I'm just going to see what you guys already know and take it from there."

"Told you, dobe," muttered Sasuke to Naruto, who turned red with anger.

"_Naruto_," warned Sakura.

His one exposed eye crinkling in amusement, Kakashi continued, "It'll be pretty basic. First I'm going to time your sprints. Then how accurate your kunai throws are, and what jutsus you are versed in. From there… I'll improvise!"

Sakura rolled her eyes. It sounded like a boring day, but all the same she was glad. There was an easygoing atmosphere between the four ninja that had been absent for the last few years of her life.

"Naruto! You're up first for the sprint. Then… Sakura, and then Sasuke," ordered Kakashi. "You're going to sprint from that tree"—he made the appropriate pointing gestures—"to that other tree. It's a distance of about fifty meters. Get in your places."

Slightly sluggish from having to get up early, all three of the students lined up at the aforementioned tree. First Naruto sprinted, then Sakura, and then Sasuke. Naruto's sprint was the fastest, faster than Sasuke's (who was the second fastest) by barely a second, and Sakura came in after them by one and a half seconds. She was frustrated with herself. Originally, she had been much faster, but with her shorter, stubbier twelve-year-old legs and her weaker metabolism, it was all she could do to keep up.

Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke themselves looked quite surprised, and Sakura remembered that her times back in her Academy days, while not a complete disaster, were still pretty abysmal. _So much for being discreet_, she thought ruefully, but thankfully no one commented much, except for Naruto, who told her, "Whoa, Sakura! You've improved!"

Next were the kunai throws. Since the training ground Kakashi had picked had no targets, he escorted them over to another training ground that had trees neatly marked with bull's-eyes. With a start, Sakura noticed Hinata practicing with one of the targets, but decided not to comment, as the bashful Hyuuga was practicing in an enclosed section and clearly looking for privacy.

"Since none of you probably brought your own kunai, if you even have them, I'll supply you with the ones the Academy gives us," explained Kakashi, and handed each gennin three kunai. "Position yourself in front of the targets. I'll check up on each of you and corrected your stances."

Sakura cursed to herself. She had forgotten about fixing her stance. Jonin were primarily sent out on missions that required killing, but chunnin and below were primarily defenders, or bodyguards. As such, the two different ranks had different ways of holding and throwing kunai—jonin had the ultimately more lethal stance, as they were usually aiming to kill, and chunnin had to shift their arms in a different way, as they were usually aiming only to injure. But it had been so long since she had thrown a kunai meant only to incapacitate… She resolved that she would watch what Sasuke did, and copy him, because, after all, how on earth would a twelve year old like Sakura know how to use a kunai to kill?

Relieved that Kakashi was currently diverted trying to fix Naruto's stance, which was horrendously wrong, Sakura tried unobtrusively to observe Sasuke's throws. The left leg was placed a little more behind her right leg than she was used to, and apparently the right arm bent during the throw just a tad bit more… Feeling confident, her memories flooding back, Sakura let the kunai loose. It hit the third ring, and she was quite satisfied with herself. Sasuke's throw had hit the third ring as well, and since this was her first time throwing a kunai that way in years, Sakura felt rather good about herself.

She threw her kunai a few more times. Eventually, with some trial and error, she managed to make a kunai hit the outside edge of the first ring around the bull's-eye. Then she felt eyes on her and tensed up.

"Less tense, Sakura," ordered the voice behind her, and Sakura realized that Kakashi had finally turned his attention to her. Miffed, she wondered what had taken him so long. Long-hidden feelings of jealousy and inferiority swelled up within her, but she quickly clamped down on them.

She forced her muscles to loosen and threw the kunai. It hit the second ring. A passable throw, but Sakura knew she could do better…

"You're throwing as if you had the reach of a fully grown woman," commented Kakashi. "Stretch your arms out a bit more." He demonstrated with her, and then turned his attention back to Naruto.

Taking a moment to shiver at how close her teacher had been to the truth, Sakura regained control of herself. The pink-haired girl had fallen into the comfortable, but monotonous, rhythm of throwing kunai after kunai towards the bull's-eye and retrieving them periodically before her gut instinct alerted her that something was wrong.

It was only a moment's notice, but her years of well-honed skills sharpened. Sakura realized that a kunai was flying right towards the back of her head. But—who? Why? No one held any particular enmity towards Sakura at this age…

However, Sakura had no time to ponder those questions. Whirling around, she vaguely noted Kakashi rushing towards her, his face worried and panicked, before she reached out an arm and plucked the kunai out of the air, out of its deadly trajectory for her head. Unconsciously, she shifted into the jonin position that had been drilled into her after her promotion, and she was just about to reverse the kunai's path and give its thrower an unpleasant surprise before alarm bells began clanging in her head.

Something was very, _very_ wrong. First, she should not have had fast enough reflexes at such a stage in her training to have been able to dodge the kunai. She should have waited for Kakashi to intervene—he would have been able to save her in time, though it would have been close. Second, she was a gennin fresh out of the Academy, not a jonin, and so she should not have known how to throw the kunai in that lethal way. It was a closely guarded secret, known only to jonin, so it was suspicious. Quickly, she tightened her grip on the kunai so it wouldn't fly away and altered her position. The whole situation had been too minute for Naruto or Sasuke-kun to have noticed, but Kakashi was another story… she could only hope he had been concentrating more closely on the kunai than on her.

She became aware of her surroundings. Naruto and Sasuke, tense, had noticed something wrong as well. Kakashi was right in front of her, his hand still outstretched, his one visible eye wide with surprise. "Good reflexes, Sakura," he muttered, almost disbelieving.

Sakura saw Hinata running towards her. "Oh, g-gomen!" cried Hinata, distraught. "I—I was j-j-just pr-practicing with m-my kunai, b-but then my aim w-was off and then—" Her pale, pearl eyes were wide with apprehension and apology.

"Um… it's okay," sighed Sakura, glad that the situation had been cleared up. It was strange to see Hinata with such short hair. She had long grown used to seeing Hinata's raven black tresses brush her waist.

"B-b-but—," stuttered Hinata. "I-I'm so—"

"Really! It's okay," said Sakura brightly. "Accidents happen. No harm, no foul, right?"

"Tch, annoying," she heard Sasuke mumble. Elbowing him sharply in the ribs, Sakura turned back to Hinata.

"Yeah! If Sakura-chan says it's okay, then I forgive you too!" spoke up Naruto brightly. "Hey… who are you anyways?"

"_Naruto!_ She was in the same class as us!" reprimanded Sakura.

"N-no, it's okay… I-I-I'm Hin-Hinata," mumbled the pale-eyed girl, her face dusted with red.

A distinct impression of a smile could be seen behind Kakashi's mask. "Well, thank goodness Sakura's reflexes were quick." He paused, and, interpreting Sakura's acid look correctly, offered lazily, "Would you like me to help you with your throw?"

"O-oh—no. I—I already h-have a t-team… w-with—"

"Team Eight, right?" interrupted Kakashi.

"H-hai—K-Kurenai-sensei and Kiba-kun a-and Shino-kun."

"Creepy bug dude!?" exclaimed Naruto.

"Ah—n-no, h-he isn't r-really very c-creepy—I-I h-have to go! G-gomen for th-throwing that kunai a-at you, S-Sakura-san!"

Team Seven watched as Hinata practically fled away from them.

"Well, that was interesting," commented Kakashi. "Let's move on to jutsus."

----

When Kakashi had said that was interesting, he wasn't lying.

Since the start, he had noticed Sakura's awkward position. She held the kunai in her hand with an accustomed confidence and ease that usually only experienced ninja had, but her stance was tentative and unsure. Her aim was off, but only because she needed to fix her range—if she had been, say, twenty, instead of twelve, he had no doubt the kunai would be hitting the dead center of the bull's-eye rather than the first few rings. But if she was so skilled at throwing kunai, she shouldn't be making an elementary mistake like misjudging her reach… that girl was a bundle of contradictions, and possibly just as interesting as Naruto and Sasuke, though she most definitely did not look like it at first glance.

And _then_… He saw her tense. Only after she tensed did he notice the kunai hurtling towards his student's head. She was only a gennin; how on earth could she have been skilled enough to notice that kunai? Well, anyways, there was no way she would be able to react quickly enough to stop that kunai—he rushed towards her—only to see her intercept that kunai. And then her stance shifted into one that he was all too familiar with, a killing stance, a murdering stance, an assassin's stance—_a jonin's stance_. She was almost about to throw the kunai back at her attacker, and Kakashi had little doubt that the attacker would be injured. But then he noticed the hunted look on her face, a wary look, and suddenly Sakura had stopped. She had glanced around tentatively, nervously, _at him_, before donning a façade of innocent surprise. It was perfect, it had no cracks, and in fact, if he had had less confidence in his senses, he would have been half-convinced that he had imagined the whole thing. But he hadn't, and this he knew.

There was something _very_ interesting about Sakura.

----

**-dodges flying sporks-**

**Sorry about not updating sooner! And I know this chapter is shorter than most, but hey, at least it's a chapter right? :P**

**Review please, and tell me what you think! They make my world go round! And they also convince me to update faster. :D**

**No, seriously, please review. I'm pretty unsure about this chapter, and depending on the reaction, I might go back through and rewrite the thing. Should I?**

**Oh, and sorry about any typos or awkward phrases you might notice. I wanted to get it up right away; I won't have a chance to do anything else for the next few days.**

**-whispers- _You know you want to review!! :P_**


	6. Making Amends

_Chapter 6_

----

Pushing through the crowd of people at Konoha's main market, Sakura caught a glimpse of the Hyuuga she had been seeking for the last hour or so. "Hinata!" cried out Sakura in relief, running after the girl. "Do you know how hard you are to find?" she joked.

The white-eyed girl jumped and then turned around. "A-ano, you we-were looking for me, Sakura-san?"

"Yes!" confirmed Sakura excitedly. "I have a proposition to make to you."

"Pr-proposition?"

"You might think this is really forward of me, and in fact, _I_ don't know why I'm asking you this so suddenly, but…" The pink-haired girl trailed off, uncomfortable. It had sounded like a great idea when she'd first thought of it, but for some reason she lost her nerve when she had to ask Hinata. And suppose the shy Hyuuga refused? Wait, no, Hinata would be far too polite to ever refuse, but Sakura had no wish to entangle the sweet girl in something she didn't want to do…

Before she thought better of it, Sakura said hurriedly, rushing through her words, "Wouldyouliketotrainwithmeinourfreetime?"

Hinata blinked.

"I—I mean, we both have something in common. At least, I think we do? I want to do my best to improve, because to tell you the truth, my teammates are _way_ ahead of me… And then I saw you in the training ground, Hinata, and I thought, _Hey, there's someone else that wants to improve!_ Right?"

Pink dusted Hinata's cheeks and ears. "I—I—"

"So I thought it'd be great if both of us trained together! The Hyuugas have a really unique fighting style, so I'm sure you can teach me a lot! And I… I've been learning some jutsus, and I could teach them to you!" offered Sakura excitedly. She noticed the wary look in Hinata's eyes, however, and added quickly, "But if you don't want to practice with me, I understand. It was just an offer, between two comrades—"

"I-I'll ac-accept," muttered Hinata in a barely audible voice. Then, visibly working up her courage, she asked Sakura, "S-Sakura-san, wh-why did y-you ask m-_me_? Y-you know Naruto-kun w-would help you." As the words came out of her mouth, she looked shocked at her boldness and began frantically apologizing to Sakura.

"No!" protested Sakura against Hinata's apologies. "It's a good question. And—well—Naruto… Sasuke-kun… even Kakashi-sensei… they're all _geniuses_, in their own way. And yeah, even Naruto—have you _ever_ seen him fail at something serious? They see something, they can do it. I know they've had their own struggles… but they've never known what it's like to be… _normal_, or as normal as ninja can get, anyways. So, I know… that no matter how close we get, I'll never fully understand them, and they'll never fully understand me." Unconsciously echoing a certain ninja in a green spandex suit with mammoth eyebrows, Sakura continued, "There's genius, which is something you're either born with or not, and then, there's the genius of hard work, which anyone can achieve if they try hard enough. And it's always easiest to do something with a partner, so I thought…"

Smiling radiantly, as widely as Sakura had ever seen Hinata in both her lifetimes, the other girl nodded. An uncharacteristic, mischievous light entered her pale eyes as she rushed forward to enclose Sakura in a quick hug, before the Hyuuga ran off. Sakura smiled at the girl's retreating back, her heart lighter than it had ever been.

Her main reason over inviting Hinata to train, she had to admit, had been selfish. Over the years, Hinata had grown close to her heart, just as close as Ino. But since they had been placed on differing teams, it was unlikely that they would have much contact, so Sakura's situation remedied that.

Second, after many years of friendship, Hinata had broken down one day and told her about those years of hard work that she had undergone to reach her current level. It broke Sakura's heart to think of her close friend going through so much trouble, and she hoped that this time around, the knowledge of having a partner would ease the timid kunoichi's burden.

Third, Sakura hoped to subtly pass along to Hinata some of her knowledge in medical jutsus. That way, if she ever had to reveal to her teammates any of her medic skills, she could brush it off as two exceptionally bright girls studying together who had had a bit too much free time. That was always much more plausible than a lone girl, though she had no idea why.

Suddenly aware that she had been standing in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the marketplace staring into nothing for the last few minutes, Sakura cast one more nostalgic look around bright, innocent Konoha and melted into the crowd.

Next stop: a certain blue-eyed, blond-haired girl's family-run flower shop.

----

Ino leaned over the counter of her family's flower shop, bored out of her mind. The floral smell had become a bit stifling in the heat of Konoha's summers, and the Yamanaka longed to go outside for a quick break. She knew she shouldn't, however, but that was the only thought that kept her behind the counter.

Shuffling her feet again (they had started to hurt from having to stand on the ground for the last few hours), Ino adjusted her immaculate blond ponytail. She caught a glimpse of herself in the window and decided that, though just a bit disheveled, her makeup was still passable and her cornflower blue eyes were still twinkling.

Desperate for something to do, she turned her back to the door and began rearranging some of the flowers on display behind her. She put the flowers that had been showing the first signs of wilting in the nearby refrigerator and replaced them with fresher ones.

The doorbell made a jingling noise as a customer walked in.

Taking a deep breath, Ino turned around and began brightly, "Welcome to—_oh_. It's Forehead Girl. What are _you_ doing here?"

Sakura looked back at her, her green eyes solemn. Despite herself, Ino felt a tinge of pride at the girl Sakura had blossomed into. And it was all because of _her_… When she saw Sakura, she got the same feeling she got after arranging a particularly attractive bouquet. Not exactly pride, but a combination of accomplishment and satisfaction. All the same, she had been hurt that Sakura had ended their friendship over _Sasuke-kun_. Ino had thought their friendship meant more than that to Sakura. But apparently it had not, and even though Ino held no real attraction towards Sasuke, and had not for a rather long while, she still pursued the dark prodigy in order to spite her former friend. Pathetic, really, she supposed, but it was the way of things and also what had defined her for so long: her love of Sasuke and her hatred of Sakura.

Was it hatred though, really? There was definitely bitterness and resentment, colored with feelings of nostalgic longing. But there wasn't any of the sort of hates that she had heard about, the white-hot hate or the smoldering hate or the cold hate.

"Ino pig," said Sakura, breaking the tension-filled silence like a knife through hot butter.

"Here to ogle over my flower arrangements again?" asked Ino haughtily. "I'm sorry, but we don't allow _ugly_ people in here."

"What are you doing in here, then?" retorted Sakura automatically.

"Oh, sorry, I meant, we don't allow people with _big foreheads_ in here." Ino almost felt sorry for needling Sakura like that. She knew that the girl was still sensitive over that particular part of her body.

The blond expected a bitter retort, or at least a pointed insult. She did _not_ expect Sakura's pensive smile—she didn't even _know_ that Sakura of all people, light-hearted, careless Sakura, could _look_ like that.

"Doesn't this bring back memories, Ino?"

"Look, Forehead, _what_ are you high on? You've been acting weird ever since graduation! Urgh, whatever; if you don't have anything good to say, just leave, will you?"

Sakura took a step forward, her verdant eyes heavy. "Look, Ino, I'm sorry. I've been doing a lot of reflecting, and I've realized how absolutely _stupid_ it was of me to break such a valuable friendship over some stupid crush. I—I still have a crush on Sasuke-kun, but… I was wondering… if we could be friends again." Her stance, previously so defiant and brave, suddenly collapsed, and the pinkette turned her eyes to the ground, as if waiting for Ino to turn down her offer.

And the blue-eyed girl found she did not like Sakura's stance one bit.

"Stupid Forehead! I was _wondering_ when you'd come around!"

----

**Short, again! Let me explain though: last chapter, I said I wouldn't have internet access for quite some time. (We're switching providers… again! Blah) But anyways, today, I got an hour or two online, so I thought I'd quickly type up something and put it up. ^_^ It turned out as more a filler chapter than anything else, but I sort of liked the idea of Sakura trying to make amends with everyone.**

**And this brings me to my question: would you like more frequent updates, but shorter chapters, or less frequent updates, but longer chapters? I prefer the former, but I'll try to do what you guys say!**

**So, there's my explanation for this (extremely short) chapter, and also, my reminder that I probably will be dead for the next week or two. (:**


	7. Breaking and Entering

**Disclaimer: Why do you even ask?**

**Sasusaku bonding (or not…) ahead! You decide whether it's a step backwards or forwards in their relationship. :P**

----

_Chapter 7_

----

Sasuke stared blankly at the bare wall ahead of him. Sometimes, when no one was around, he liked to indulge in such quiet moments of contemplation.

The stark white wall stared back at him, and sighing, he realized not for the first time how Spartan his apartment was. After Itachi's massacre of the clan, the village council had given him his own apartment. While he understood that that was mostly procedure, he had a feeling that some of them had pulled a few strings to give him a particularly large apartment. Sasuke had heard rumors of how Naruto's apartment was only one room and one bathroom, and Sasuke's was three bedrooms with two bathrooms.

It was much too large for one little boy, and much too lonely.

Save for a messy bed, he supposed that there were very few clues in the apartment indicating someone currently resided in it. In the dining room, a fairly well-made dining table, small, all sharp angles and straight lines, with matching chairs. In the living room, a lumpy couch and a flat-screen TV that might as well have been there for decoration, as Sasuke had rarely ever sat down there. His room had only a desk strewn with Academy homework—it still gave him a start to realize that he no longer had to do homework, at least, of the writing kind. A western-style bed with a thin mattress and cotton sheets was shoved into a corner. The wall that faced Konoha's tribute to the Hokages had a fairly large square window, but on this gray and cloudy day it might as well have been shut.

For the first time in a long time, Sasuke was able to name the vague tightening in his chest.

It was _loneliness_.

He wondered why he was suddenly in such a melancholy mood. Perhaps it had something to do with the two other members of his team. Naruto and Sakura were always cheerful, laughing, smiling, even though sometimes he suspected Sakura's smile was feigned. Into his mind sneaked a suspicion that, had Naruto and Sakura been here with him, they would have been able to liven up his dead, drab apartment, but he soon realized what a ridiculous path that train of thought had wandered into and recast his thoughts.

His frantic scrambling mind was interrupted by a sudden thump in the living room. He stiffened and, with the catlike grace that only ninja possessed, pulled out a kunai out of the pillow on his bed. Though he hated to admit it, long nights alone had bred a certain paranoia within him; even the creaking of pipes was enough to send his senses haywire.

Hugging the walls of the hallway closely, he sneaked to where the hallway met the living room and peeked cautiously around the corner. To his surprise, he saw Sakura next to the dining table, wincing and rubbing her toe.

He opened his mouth to demand exactly _what_ she was doing here—though of course, in a significantly more dignified manner. Before he could, though, Sakura, hopping on one foot, turned around and faced Sasuke. She gave him a slight smile, and then rolled her eyes and said, "I stubbed my toe against your stupid table."

Narrowing his obsidian eyes, Sasuke replied eloquently, "_Hn._"

Years around Sasuke had led to Sakura being able to decipher the many inflections the boy used with his signature phrase. When he said it _that_ particular way, it meant that he was absolutely incensed and shocked. It comforted her on a certain level that Sasuke was still the same.

Sakura elaborated, "Kakashi-sensei told me to tell you and Naruto that our training session tomorrow morning has been moved to five in the afternoon. I already told Naruto, but when I went to tell you, you wouldn't answer the door no matter how loudly I knocked. So then I just opened a window, and I was going to find out if you were still there, but then you found me." She shrugged. "I hope you don't mind me breaking in?"

"Hn," said Sasuke again, and this time Sakura almost winced at the palpable sarcasm in his voice.

She coughed awkwardly, looking anywhere but Sasuke. She had imagined her first trip to his apartment to be far less awkward—and, admittedly, in her younger years, more romantic—than this.

What stood out the most to her was the distinct lack of concern for comfort in the furniture. With the death of the Uchihas, Sasuke had inherited enough to buy half of Konoha and then some, but the furnishings here were even less comfortable than the furniture in Naruto's home—and that was saying something, as the Kyuubi contained received an astonishingly small income from the Council. She guessed it had something to do with the villager's fear of Naruto, and thought it very sad.

Sasuke noticed the frown beginning to mar Sakura's face. "What's wrong?" he asked, not out of any actual concern for her but more out of curiosity as to what could actually depress someone usually as cheerful as Sakura—or so he told himself.

"Oh… just thinking…"

The Uchiha heir was hard-pressed not to inject a clever retort.

"You receive much more from the Council than Naruto does—you _do_ have the money you inherited to augment what the Council gives you, but Naruto doesn't. I thought that was strange and—unfair, don't you think so?"

Sasuke nodded tersely. He was counting the seconds Sakura was staying; when would she _leave?_ Why was she staying here? No one except him and the social worker that came once a year to check up on him had ever seen the inside of his apartment, and he supposed he felt uncomfortable showing such an obvious _fangirl_ something so private.

And how had she managed to break in anyways? He wasn't an oblivious child. With the help of some of the Academy instructors, he had set up many countless traps around the perimeter of his apartment to keep out any unwanted intruders from entering in exactly the way Sakura had. There were kunai traps, genjutsu traps, and plain old burglar alarms. He highly doubted even chunnin could have sneaked in without being exceptionally skilled. It wasn't arrogance; the Academy teachers had assured him of that.

How could _Sakura_, of all people, have broken into his apartment? He fixed her with a keen look, distracted by his annoyance for the time being.

She was smiling rather vacantly back at him. Okay, maybe _that_ was just a _bit_ too harsh. Her smile was warm. It was annoying, too, how the presence of someone else seemed to fill up the emptiness of his stark apartment.

And maybe, just _maybe_, he was afraid that his new team member would be able to enter his well-fortified heart as easily and innocently as Sakura had just broken into his apartment. Because that would mean he was becoming _exactly_ what his brother had said he was, and it would kill him more surely than any literal death to prove his brother right about anything.

Sakura noticed the exact moment he shuttered himself away from her. His obsidian eyes, previously guarded, were now impenetrable. Though she hadn't done anything but explain why she had entered his apartment, she had felt him almost _soften_ by her very presence, and it had been encouraging. But something about her presence had also made him wary.

Her throat dry, Sakura began, "Listen, Sasuke-kun… I know about what happened in the past, with the Uchihas. I have no idea what Itachi said to you"—actually, that was a lie, but who needed to know besides her?—"but please, don't shut yourself away from people. Naruto and I… we care _so much_ for you, and it sounds stupid, because we've only known each other _closely_ for—what?—three days? Four? But we're a team now. Even if you don't feel the same way about us, we're your friends and we only want the best for you. And shutting yourself off away from everyone can't be healthy. So, please, even if it's not me or Naruto, just let yourself be open with _somebody_…" Once Sakura opened her mouth, it was as though it refused to obey her. She had spilled out one of her deepest wants for Sasuke, and was so absolutely terrified of his reaction that she refused to look at his face, instead staring at a place in the middle of his neck. At the end of her earnest speech, Sakura her eyes glued to Sasuke's feet, turned around and walked briskly to the door.

"Sa-ku-ra…" she heard behind her, and paused, her hand resting on the doorknob of Sasuke's apartment, her back to the sole Uchiha heir.

She didn't see the almost-tender, halfway-gentle smirk on his face. Her real concern for him touched some long forgotten chord in his heart. Her genuine words were not the fake concern of a superficial fangirl. There was something in her voice… something far deeper than anything he had ever heard before. He had no idea what to say in response, but felt obligated to give her at least something. And what did people usually say once they were given gifts?

"Thank you."

Pink hair flying, Sakura spun around, and Sasuke was once again surprised by the look of real agony in her emerald green eyes.

Her voice wavering, her eyes suspiciously shiny, she told Sasuke, "Pl-please… even if you don't listen to anything e-else I ever say, please _swear_ to me that you'll never say that again to me. _Ever_."

Through her blurring vision, the windy night swept past her memory before she clamped down on it and shoved it into the recesses of her memory. She looked at him one moment longer, just long enough to see the pain of the bee's sting of rejection in his eyes, but overwhelmed with the past, she couldn't care less and rushed out of Sasuke's apartment.

Walking quickly, Sakura ran, weaving through the many crowds out shopping this gray, cloudy afternoon. Her feet traced an unconscious path that they had walked on many times before. Some of the villagers gave her strange looks, but at the moment she could care less about what some people she had never met before in her life thought about her.

Panting, she came to a stop in front of The Bench. It was just like the other benches placed periodically throughout Konoha, but Sakura knew the feel of the rough stone by heart. She collapsed down onto it, staring down at her feet, her view obstructed by some unruly strands of pink hair.

What had she done? Why had Sasuke's two last words affected her so deeply? Well, she knew _why_, but Sakura was supposed to have been over it by now. She was confused, so confused. She almost longed for her previous Konoha, even though it was a Konoha without Sasuke-kun and battered by the Akatsuki, perhaps utterly in ruins. It was a familiar Konoha, a Konoha she had grown used to, a Konoha in which everything was the way it should be.

A sudden, irrational fear had gripped her heart at those two simple syllables. Almost like the time before, she had absolutely no idea why he had told her, "Thank you." Why did people say _thank you_? In gratitude, of course. But what did Sasuke have to be grateful for? The fact that there was someone who cared about him? Well, it obviously hadn't made much of a difference to him the first time around. Was he grateful for the fact that there was someone who was actually speaking their mind to him? But all she was was an annoying, insipid little fangirl; he had shown time and time again he was annoyed by her opinion.

She sat like that, in thought, for some time before she realized her parents had probably gotten worried about her and were wondering where she was, to say nothing of Hinata, with whom she had scheduled a training session.

It didn't occur to her until much later that, regardless of why he had told her _thank you_, she had just rejected Sasuke's first and only offer of friendship that he had ever given her in this world.

----

Hinata smiled nervously at Sakura. "I-I hope y-you didn't m-mind that we had t-to use the c-common training grounds. F-Father w-wasn't very p-pl-pleased about h-having to give th-the Hyuuga t-training grounds to a-a—to s-someone not o-of the Hyuuga c-clan."

"Oh, no! I'm completely fine with it," said Sakura brightly. "I only wish the weather was better… it's so gray and cloudy!"

"Y-yes. I-I like the r-rain, but I h-hate it when it's cl-cloudy."

"I know! I just want to scream out at the sky, 'Make up your mind already! Do you want to be sunny or rainy?' But I know it's silly. Anyways, Hinata, do you have any idea on what we should work on today?"

Sakura knew she was acting particularly perky, but there was something about the shy pearl-eyed girl that made Sakura do her best to cheer her up.

Hinata toed the ground nervously. "P-perhaps s-some sta-stamina exercises. K-Kurenai-sensei w-was telling u-us about th-the importance of st-stamina in a n-ninja's life."

Sakura wholeheartedly agreed. "Let's run a lap around Konoha then? I think that'd be a good start." Before the incident, Sakura had been running as many as ten laps around Konoha each morning, and this was a comfortable call back to something familiar—her daily runs with Hinata.

Together, the both of them set off.

----

**Right! So there it was.**

**Please, please review! They make my world go round, and entice me into updating quicker. ;) I hope you guys don't mind the lack of action; I really want to get the relationships between all the characters set up first before I move onto all the action in the Naruto-verse.**

**Did Sasuke seem OOC to you? I tried my best to write him in-character, but usually he's such a stoic stone statue (alliteration! :o) that's it really very hard for me to keep him realistic to the manga. I don't know if I failed horribly. –hides-**

**I wasn't sure whether to call this chapter "Tactical Error" or "Breaking and Entering". I then decided on "Breaking and Entering" because the quarter landed on tails, not heads, but which one do you guys think is a better name?**

**Oh, and once again, sorry for any typos. I am a lazy person; I don't like to proofread. xD If I notice a lot, or a lot are pointed out to me, I'll probably go back through and edit. :)**

**AND!** **Before I forget, like it said in the AN at the top of the chapter (at the risk of sounding redundant), do you think the "bonding" between Sakura and Sasuke was a step backwards and forwards in their relationship? I'd love to know what you guys think!**

updated **3.02.09**


	8. Playing Dead

_Chapter 8_

----

The next month passed in a blur of D-ranked missions during which Sakura struggled not to reveal her brute strength to get her allotted tasks done. After the incident in Sasuke's apartment, he and she had settled into a routine that consisted of him ignoring her and Sakura returning the favor. Even Naruto gave her strange looks the first few days afterwards (and she could just _tell_ Kakashi was wondering exactly what had happened) but the team had gotten used to it after the first week.

Quite frankly, Sakura was surprised Naruto hadn't complained to the Hokage about their onslaught of mundane missions. Perhaps the fact that Sakura kept him company during these missions made them pass by shorter for the blond? She discarded that thought as far too self-important.

But wasn't this approximately around this time the Hokage had assigned them the mission to Wave? Though she wasn't particularly keen on repeating the experience, she had no idea what would happen to the team if they did not go through that mission. And anyways, she supposed it was better to stick with what she knew.

So, on one of the few days of rest between their missions, Sakura had set up a meeting with Naruto at Ichiraku's. Ignoring his victorious crowing that Sakura-chan had _finally_ seen the light and realized how _hot_ he was and agreed to go on a _date_ with him, she subtly put the idea into his head that they had had more than enough D-rank missions, and it was about time for a C-rank mission. To her relief, he agreed with her, spontaneously decided he would bring it up to the Hokage during their next meeting, and seemed completely oblivious to any ulterior motives she might have had behind setting their meeting up. Then she mentally scolded herself for being far too paranoid—after all, no matter what she did, who would ever suspect _time travel_ as the cause? It was an utterly ridiculous, unfeasible idea—to most everyone but Sakura.

Her training sessions with Hinata were going wonderfully. She was in far better condition now than she had ever been at age twelve, and she had a feeling that the same was true of Hinata, from the almost euphoric smile on the shier girl's face after their morning laps around Konoha (they had just upgraded to three from the one lap that they had started with). Sakura wondered absently sometimes whether Lee would ever discover their morning runs or whether she would have to wait till the chunnin exams to meet him.

She then turned her attention back onto the scene in front of her. The Hokage was reviewing their after-mission report, and Naruto was fidgeting beside her. Past Naruto was Sasuke, staring stolidly at the wall ahead of him. Sakura felt a familiar twinge at the sight but then schooled herself into ignoring her, as she had done countless other times this month.

The Hokage, setting down the report on his polished oak desk, began, "Now, Team Seven, Kakashi, your next mission is to—"

"Excuse me—" interrupted Sakura.

"No, old man!" interjected Naruto at the same time.

Pausing, he stared back at Naruto and Sakura, who both glanced at each other. An exchange seemed to pass between them, and Naruto continued, "No, no, no! We're ready for a better mission! I swear, if we have to return Torah-chan for Lady Shiniji _one more time_—!"

"Naruto!" scolded Sakura. She turned back to the man in front of her, ignoring Sasuke's eyes boring in to her. "We just think we're ready for a more strenuous mission. We've been gennin for a month now, after all, and the only missions we've done are D-rank missions. I've done some asking around, and most gennin teams have already completed at least one C-ranked mission by now." That was a bit of fudging, but of course, no one needed to know, now did they?

Naruto was nodding enthusiastically, effectively silenced by Sakura's demand. She could even feel Sasuke's tacit agreement in the atmosphere, and she saw the crinkling of Kakashi's one visible eye that signified amusement.

Saurotobi was impassive. Before now, Sakura had not noticed the conspicuous absence of Iruka-sensei (where _was_ he!?) and wondered how that would affect the outcome.

The Hokage sighed heavily. "Fine. It seems you've already learned about how missions are ranked, though I have no idea how, as Kakashi himself looks surprised you know—"

"Sakura-chan taught me!" explained Naruto brightly, and Sakura winced. Already, their meeting had significantly diverged from what her memories had told her… were gennin not supposed to know the method of mission-ranking until they were told by their sensei or the Hokage?

Noticing their curious looks, Sakura quickly improvised a story and elaborated, hopefully convincingly, "One day I was doing some extracurricular reading and came across the terms for classifying mission status. I decided it would be beneficial for my team if I shared the information." Her voice was formal, a habit she tended to fall into whenever she was lying, but thankfully none of the ones in the room noticed.

Saurotobi nodded. "So, you know that C-rank missions are usually reserved for only newly ranked chunnin or extremely experience gennin. You three are neither, so I'm afraid I'll have to refuse. Eventually you'll progress to C-rank missions, but at the moment it's far too soon—"

"Please, Hokage-sama," came a quiet, impassive voice that Sakura realized with a start was Sasuke. Kakashi, the Hokage, Naruto, and she turned to Sasuke, shocked looks on the faces of all.

The Hokage gave Sasuke an equally impenetrable look before abruptly smirking softly. Flipping through his scroll of C-rank missions, he said, "Fine, Sasuke, if you want it that much… there's a C-rank mission available. You'll need to escort the daughter of a local noble to… one of the border towns of Fire Country."

Sakura suddenly felt very cold. This was _not_ the mission she remembered Saurotobi assigning them. She opened her mouth, desperate to say something, _anything_—

Knocking interrupted Sakura's wild monologue. All four people in the room turned to the door in surprise. It was an unspoken rule between Konoha nin that when the Hokage was engaged in a meeting with a gennin team, he would not be interrupted save for emergencies that required his immediate attention.

A man, unfamiliar but still wonderfully, amazingly familiar, wobbled in uncertainly. "Hey!" he said, swinging his empty sake bottle wildly. "I ordered a C-rank mission… you gonna wait for me to die before you fill it so you won't have to pay me anything?"

Sakura rushed towards him instinctively, almost about to hug him for appearing at such a timely moment before she caught herself. By then, she was already halfway towards him, so she covered her actions by continuing walking towards him. "Sir, you don't look very steady on your feet!" She grabbed him by his elbow and helped steady him.

Tazuna stared down at her with wide eyes before tentatively raising a hand to pat her on her pink head gently. "That's what I call a ninja! Why is she stuck with three idiots like you guys? Especially that shortest one with the stupid face?"

"I am _not_ stupid!" protested Naruto vehemently after he caught on that Tazuna was insulting him directly.

Pointedly ignoring the incensed blond, Tazuna declared, "It's decided! I want her to fill my mission! A real girl like her, she's going to grow up into a fine lady."

The Hokage shrugged apologetically, and Kakashi rubbed his hair awkwardly. Saurotobi explained, "She's a gennin—a beginning ninja. Gennin always complete missions in teams of three. And, anyways, these three have just been assigned another mission—"

"Yeah!" supported Naruto, fixing Tazuna with a vicious glare.

"Er… actually… we haven't really, have we, Hokage-sama?" asked Sakura awkwardly. "I—I'd like to take this mission, with the rest of my team, if Tazuna-san allows it, of course—"

"_WHAT!?_" exclaimed Naruto. "With an idiot like him!?"

"I'm sure Tazuna isn't an idiot, Naruto! I'd love to complete a mission with him. Both of them are guard duty, right? This mission would be more fun; in the first, we have to stay in Fire country, but just think! In this one we can go to Wave country!" reasoned Sakura.

Kakashi fixed a piercing stare on her, wondering how she knew.

"Well… I guess Sakura-chan is right… even though I don't like this old fat dude one bit!"

"Watch your mouth, boy!" retorted Tazuna. "And fine, I agree to putting up with those two," he added.

Looking sheepish, Kakashi, still rubbing his hair, told Tazuna, "I'll have to come too. I'm their instructor."

The bridge builder waved his hand. "Fine, fine! You're a jonin, right? All the better. Can't have too much protection against robbers these days, after all!" He laughed nervously.

"Why would anyone want to rob someone like _him_, anyways?" muttered Naruto sullenly, sidling closer to Sakura. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Hey! You impudent little boy! I'll have you know I am a very famous bridge builder, and I'm famous throughout my nation!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at the antics of both, feeling deeply relieved. She couldn't keep the grin off her face as the Hokage ordered the team to pack, trying to be heard over the shouting exchanges of Tazuna and Naruto.

There had been some glitches, sure, but for the most part, everything was back to normal.

For the first time in a long time.

----

Sakura shifted the pack on her shoulders uncomfortably. Perhaps she _had_ gone a bit overboard packing this time, but one never knew when one would need splints… some rolls of gauze… scrolls in case she had free time…

She almost envied Sasuke. His pack was nearly empty, and it was hardly affecting his signature slouch. Naruto seemed to have packed just as much as she, and he was periodically jumping towards her excitedly to hug her.

"Can you believe it!" he said, not for the first time. "Our first mission! And we get to go outside of Konoha!"

Rolling her eyes exasperatedly but affectionately, Sakura corrected, "It's not our _first_ mission, Naruto."

"Sakura-chan! It's the first one that really _mattered_!"

"Relax, dobe," muttered Sasuke from beside her. "It's only guard duty."

Naruto spluttered, affronted, and Sakura ruffled his blond hair comfortably. As the shortest of the trio (though not for much longer, Sakura knew), he had resigned himself to this. Sometimes it gave Sakura a sense of nostalgia, but it comforted her because she had often done the same to Naruto before the _incident_.

"Where is Kakashi-sensei, anyways?" wondered Sasuke out loud, which was distinctly unlike of him. Grinning covertly to herself, Sakura realized that, as disinterested as Sasuke tried to seem, he was just as excited as Naruto and she were about their first _real_ mission, which was why the Uchiha was so impatient with his teacher's characteristic laziness. Even Sakura couldn't keep herself from arriving a half hour earlier than the team had been scheduled to, and she had already relived this experience once.

After what seemed like far too long (due partially to the awkward atmosphere between her and Sasuke, which managed to dampen even Naruto's spirits), Kakashi-sensei and Tazuna appeared, walking past the Konoha city gates to where Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were waiting for them.

"Yes!" cried Naruto, pumping his fists into the air. "About time! I'm so excited! I've never left Konoha before!"

Giving a humph, Tazuna turned away and asked Sakura, "You sure I'm going to be safe with this little kid?"

Doing her best to look trustworthy, Sakura turned her doe-eyes on full force and nodded solemnly. "Oh, yes, Tazuna-san! We may not look it, but we'd be able to disable most _untrained_ highwaymen, which, thankfully, describe ninety percent of robbers. And Kakashi-sensei is a _jonin_." She emphasized the _untrained_ out of slight spite towards Tazuna for lying about the mission's requirements.

She was rewarded when Tazuna only looked more nervous.

Bulldozing straight over Sakura's explanation, Naruto cried out, "Who do you think you're talking to like that, old man!? One day I'm going to become Hokage and—!"

"Naruto," sighed Sakura, "shut it. Why don't we just get moving on?"

Sasuke nodded beside her and started walking down the path leading from Konoha. Rolling her shoulders uncomfortably from the weight of the pack, Sakura infused just a bit of her chakra into her inhuman strength to lighten the burden and followed after the stoic boy. Naruto ran after her, lamenting about Sakura-chan leaving him all alone with the gross fat old Wave man, and Kakashi and Tazuna scuffled after the trio.

They continued in that fashion, though Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto had clumped together and fallen behind both Tazuna and Kakashi, both of whom led the way since they were the only ones who knew where to go. All three picked up on the fact that the two older men had long since taken to muttering softly, giggling like schoolgirls every now and then, pointing to Kakashi's orange book, and blushing. Shuddering collectively, the younger ones (well, perhaps Sakura wasn't one of the _younger_ ones, per se) attempted to carry on their own conversations… or at least Sakura and Naruto did, with the odd attempt to include Sasuke every now and then.

The sun was directly overhead before Sakura felt the tell-tale brush against her consciousness and passed by an all-too-familiar puddle, just as Kakashi was explaining that since the mission was only a C-rank, there was unlikely to be any enemy ninja. Her senses on full alert as she walked by, Sakura tensed herself and eased closer, protectively, towards her team.

"Ka-Kakashi-sensei," began Sakura falteringly, feigning apprehension, "it hasn't rained for a while, has it?"

Pausing, the silver-haired man turned to look back at Sakura, and Sasuke answered in his stead.

"No," he said, his voice all but screaming _duh_.

"Then… why is there… a puddle…?"

It was as though she had opened Pandora's Box. Her instincts, which had kept her alive for so long, screamed out their warnings as two men rose from the seemingly innocuous puddle. "Too perceptive for your own good, little girl!" taunted one, and Sakura flinched away from the rancid smell of his breath as his ebony hair brushed against hers.

Naruto saw it all happen almost in slow-motion. Sakura, nervously biting her lip, asked Kakashi-sensei a question, and then suddenly she was surrounded by those horrible bad ninja. She stared at him in utter shock, her verdant eyes begging him to save her, frozen helplessly as the two ninja wrapped their chain around her.

Kakashi's mind was entirely clinical, numb. Sakura stood no chance against them; they were hopelessly experienced and outnumbered her as well. He would have cursed himself for letting his guard down, if that would not have wasted precious extra milliseconds he knew Sakura did not have. Even as he rushed towards her, he knew it was too late, even as their chains dug deeper into Sakura, even as her face contorted in pain, even as she was split into unrecognizable pieces by the merciless chain. _Not another Rin!_ he thought, but by then it was already too late. He hated himself, but his first priority was in making sure that the rest of Team Seven made it through physically, though whether they would psychologically was still in debate. In the meantime, he concentrated on the battle. All jonin and higher soon realized it was a necessary skill, to be able to lay aside all personal feelings during a battle and fight coldly, or else they would soon go insane. Some had, in fact, and most came remarkably close.

Grinning, bloodthirsty, one of the enemy nin remarked, "That was _too_ easy. One down, three to go!"

Skillfully twirling a kunai on his index finger, his lithe form embodying all the deadly grace of a jungle cat, Kakashi rushed at them. They were fairly skilled, at least mid-level chunnin, but nothing that he couldn't handle. Vaguely, he noted that Naruto and Sasuke were still shocked, unable to do anything, just helpless weight, but he couldn't blame them at all.

"Foolish!" cackled the one on the left, and Kakashi felt almost grimly amused despite the situation. Here they were, rushing into a battle with an enemy they knew almost nothing about, and they were calling _him_ foolish?

They attempted the same trick with him that they had succeeded in doing with Sakura, but they would soon learn the same tricks didn't work twice on him. His kunai caught on their chain, jarring both the ninja's wrists, though, unfazed, Kakashi continued. The tough chain did not give way, but not expecting the simple brute force of Kakashi, the enemy ninja were forced to abandon the chain as Kakashi pinned it to a tree, using his momentum.

Cursing, both split from his oncoming assault, converged, and, running past Naruto who only watched them with wide eyes, attempted to attack Tazuna. Seemingly waking up from his shocked, horrified daze, Sasuke, who happened to be the closest to Tazuna, pulled a kunai out from his pack and stood protectively in front of Tazuna, ordering gruffly, "Stand back!"

He had no idea what he would do. He was utterly unprepared, still shaking from the shock of someone being massacred in such a horrendous way, so carelessly. It wasn't supposed to be like that. The world was supposed to stop for a minute, there was supposed to be some significant moment—people weren't supposed to die just like that! There was supposed to be fanfare, there was supposed to be… he found he couldn't give a name to his feelings. _Her_ blood was still staining the ground red, reminding him of that fateful day— and suddenly the young boy's vision was awash with pink.

A ghost stood in front of him, a ghost that had died in front of his very eyes. Everyone in the clearing faltered, paused, even the two attacking men, and the ghost used that opening to kick both of them in a kicking and punch combo so quick that Sasuke was not even sure whether he saw it all. The two ninja slumped to the ground, unconscious.

His mind refused to compute. Desperate for proof that he was hallucinating or _something_, the dark-haired boy turned to where Sakura's remains were and saw only thick splinters of wood.

Naruto, previously frozen in his tracks, suddenly ran towards Sakura, enclosing her in a bear hug. Tazuna, shaking, had collapsed onto the ground. Kakashi's relief was palpable, visible in the way his eye crinkled and the way he walked over to her and patted her on the head. Yet Sasuke still stood behind her, standing still again, hating her and hating him and hating the two enemy nin though he hardly knew why.

_He was staring at her back_. He was staring at _her_ back. Easily the weakest kunoichi in Konoha, and she had succeeded where he had failed miserably.

Why was he suddenly so weak? Why had he frozen up? What was that dread that had clenched his heart? Everything Itachi had said was right. Caring was weakness. If he had truly felt nothing, then he would have rushed in right after Sakura had been murdered—or not—and attacked them during that one precious moment in which they crowed out their victory. But he had been too shocked by the death of one of the constants in his life, and he had done exactly what Itachi had told him he would do.

Itachi would never be right, and Sasuke would do anything possible to prove it so. Even as Sakura apologized to her team and Tazuna for making them worry, even as Kakashi rounded on Tazuna and demanded to know the truth behind the mission, his night-colored eyes hardened with a dark resolve.

----

**Action scenes = x_X I get the feeling that my one action was horrible. I guess I'm just not that good at writing action scenes; every word was like pulling teeth. Sorry! :P**

**Phew! Just to clarify, the jutsu Sakura used was the Kawarimi jutsu (sp?). Basically, it's the body-switching jutsu they use a lot; Sakura used it to switch her body with a log. I just couldn't the right spot to add it in without ruining the flow. ****And, yes. Finally, this story shows _some_ traces of a plot. You were all wondering whether this was just going to be Sakura having fun in Konoha, weren't you!?**

**AND GUESS WHAT! I've made a new resolution. I'm not going to update unless I've written at least three thousand words (since longer chapters + infrequent updates seems to be more popular than shorter chapters + frequent updates), unless of course I run into that wall that is writer's block. I don't know how those crazy awesome people out there manage to write chapters with ten thousand words or something equally crazy, but I feel this is a step in the right direction! XD This chapter (not including the author's notes) was 3,370 words! -pats self on back-**

**_Review… they make me happyyyyyy… And they make me update faster, of course… Please? I really do want to know if I botched up that action scene completely; if enough readers think I did do badly enough, I seriously WILL go back and rewrite it._**


	9. Author's Note

Hey guys! So you're probably wondering when I'm going to update this story. To tell you the truth, I've been reading through it for a while now and... it makes me wince whenever I read it. xD I feel like I've improved so much since I last updated this story. With that said, I'd like to announce that I'm going to do a major rewrite of the story. The plot will remain the same, but I feel like I could do so much better than what I've done. I'm going to post up the first chapter of the revised story soon, and once I do that I'll put up another author's note here to notify the readers of this story. So if you'd like to be alerted when I do put up the new story, either add me to your author's alert list or just wait till the story alert for the new chapter on this story comes in.

If you liked this story the way it was, sorry about that; when I rewrite the story, I'm going to make at least the writing different enough that it won't be like reading the same thing over again. :) Honestly, this story has been in need of some major editing for a long time now, and it's about time I got started. It's just that there are so few Sakura-travels-back-in-time stories out there that _I_ like that I really want to make this the best one that I can write. If that makes any sense... xD

So anyways! I just typed that up real quick to tell you that no I _haven't_ abandoned this story, no matter what it seems like. (:


	10. Author's Note v2

Okay! The rewrite is up. It's called _After the Fall_ and I hope everyone likes it. You can either find it on my profile, or here's the link:

http : // www . fanfiction . net / s / 5798184 / 1 /

(remove the spaces)

Let me stress how much I want you guys to review! It's the first time I've ever done such a major rewrite in the story, and it'd be great if you guys would review AtF so that I can learn your reactions to it and what I'm doing right and what I should improve upon.


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